October 2, 2008
By Doyle Rice and Oren Dorell
USA Today

Photo: Hurricane Ike (AFP)

Think hurricane season is over? Think again. Top hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University are predicting well-above average activity for the month of October. Forecasters say that October should feature three named storms, of which two will be hurricanes. Of those two hurricanes, one should become a major (Category 3-4-5) hurricane. Overall, the forecast team expects activity to be nearly twice the activity of the average October.

"We expect the month of October to be quite active," says Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the hurricane forecast. "We continue to observe low sea-level pressures and warm sea-surface temperatures across the tropical Atlantic," he says. "A combination of these two factors typically leads to an active October."

Through September, there have been 12 named storms, of which 6 were hurricanes, including three major hurricanes. A typical full season features 10 named storms and 6 hurricanes, of which two are major hurricanes.

Photo: More than 400 volunteers pick up trash Saturday at Padre Island National Sea Shore in Texas. (By Todd Yates, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, via AP)

"We predict that October will be quite active based on climate signals through September," says William Gray, who has been issuing hurricane forecasts at Colorado State for the last 25 years. "There has been a strong clustering of hurricane activity around mid-July and late August-early September. We think we are now entering a new period of heightened activity that is likely to go for another two to three weeks."

Remember that back in 2005, after the amazingly active months of August and September, October brought us Hurricane Wilma, the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin. Wilma killed dozens of Americans and caused $20 billion in damage as it tore across Florida on Oct. 24.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/hurricanes/2008-10-01-hurricane_N.htm