Another season begins...

Today is the official start to the 2010 North Atlantic Hurricane Season. The forecasts (from CSU; NOAA's outlook can be found here) are for significantly above-normal activity levels across a broad range of metrics: named storms, hurricanes, major hurricanes, and ACE. There's already discussion of way above-normal SSTs in the Main Development Region, as well as reductions of deep-layer shear over the same. We'll see what develops - and from a climatologist's perspective, I'm also interested in how well these forecasts of above-normal activity pan out. Come back on 30 November to see.

On a related note, the latest Tropical Cyclone Frequently Asked Questions page is out and can be accessed at http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/tcfaqHED.html. The page is intended for a general audience and has lots of good statistics and descriptions of tropical cyclone-related phenomena.