Quote:
Originally Posted by TheAlphaPaul
"But experts have also forecast a record high temperature within five years."
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Trust the experts:
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Defying predictions, the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season ended with a whimper rather than a bang on Thursday, without a single hurricane hitting U.S. shores.
Only three tropical storms made landfall, a welcome relief from the previous two years, when nearly a dozen hurricanes battered the country.
The year's tropical activity fell well short of predictions made at the beginning of the season that called for an above-average number of storms -- although not as many as last year's record-shattering season of 28 named storms.
Fizzling 2007 hurricane season stokes warming debate
With less than a month left in the hurricane season, and the remnants of Hurricane Noel dissipating off the New England coastline, it appears this season could end up as something of a bust.
That wasn't the outlook a couple of months ago, when this year's hurricane season threatened to be a whopper.
Two Category 5 hurricanes had already crashed through the Caribbean by early September, only the fourth time since 1935 that two of the most powerful category of storms had formed in a single year. And the season, which traditionally peaks in mid-September, was still young.
It seemed as if the fears of scientists who believe global warming has increased hurricane activity were being realized.
But according to a statistic that scientists use to gauge the overall strength of a season, the Accumulated Cyclone Energy index, overall activity for this year almost certainly will come in below average, perhaps by as much as 50 percent. Only a major hurricane could change that now.
That's in stark contrast to the preseason forecast for 2007 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which called for an ACE index up to 200 percent above average.
Hurricanes Dean and Felix were major storms, but most of the year's remaining systems only developed into minimal tropical storms.