Forecasters see quiet hurricane season

BOULDER, Colo., April 4 (UPI) -- This year's Atlantic hurricane season will have lower than normal activity, only the fourth season since 1995 with a reduced forecast, meteorologists say.

Weather scientists at Colorado State University are forecasting 10 named storms, four hurricanes and two major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher in the tropical Atlantic, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The three-year average for the April 1-Nov. 30 season is 12.1 named storms, 6.4 hurricanes and 2.7 major hurricanes.

"The tropical Atlantic has anomalously cooled over the past several months, and it appears that the chances of an El Nino event this summer and fall are relatively high," CSU meteorologists Phil Klotzbach and Bill Gray said.

Cooler ocean temperatures deprive tropical storms of the heat they need to develop, and El Nino events often generate winds that dissipate storm systems before they develop to strong levels.

Klotzbach and Gray correctly predicted an active hurricane season in 2011, forecasting 16 named storms for a season that ultimately had 19, the third most on record, the Post reported.