2011 Hurricane Season Outlook for Atlantic and Gulf Coast Customers

Hurricane season is here once again for Spark Energy residential electric customers. Although researchers at North Carolina State University’s Coastal Fluid Dynamics Lab say 2011 will be another busy year for Atlantic and Gulf Coast hurricanes, they predict it won’t be as bad as 2010.

– About 13 to 16 named storms will form in the Atlantic Basin, an area including the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. That number is much higher than the 50-year average of 9.6 named storms but less than the 19 storms that formed last year.
– Of the 13 to 16 named storms forming in the Atlantic basin, seven to nine storms are expected to become hurricanes.
– There is a 70 percent chance that one of the seven to nine storms will make landfall along the coast of the southeastern United States, a 40 percent chance that one of those storms will arrive as a hurricane and a 15 percent chance that the landfalling storm will be classified as a major hurricane, which is classified as category three or higher.
– In the Gulf of Mexico, three to five named storms are predicted to form. Of those, two to four are expected to make landfall, with a 70 percent chance that one will reach landfall as a hurricane and a 15 percent chance that the hurricane will be category three or stronger.

At Spark Energy, we take hurricanes seriously and recommend that you prepare for the possibility of being without power for an extended period.

Source

North Carolina State University Coastal Fluid Dynamics Lab website, 2011 Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Outlook.

Active Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicted for 2011, PhysOrg.com, April 15, 2011.