Hurricane Forecast Reduced

In what can only be a blow to the global warming adherants, the foremost hurricane expert in the country has reduced the forecast number of storms for 2006:

A noted hurricane research team on Thursday reduced its forecast for the Atlantic hurricane season but said it would still be above average with 15 tropical storms, seven of which would become hurricanes.

In May, the Colorado State University team formed by pioneer forecaster William Gray had predicted the 2006 season would bring 17 storms and that nine would become hurricanes.

The CSU forecast, which is updated several times each year, said three of the hurricanes would be "intense" storms of Category 3 or higher on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. The May forecast predicted five intense hurricanes.

Intense storms have maximum sustained winds of at least 111 miles per hour (179 km per hour).

The forecast was lowered because tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures are not quite as warm and eastern Pacific waters are warming, which tends to dampen Atlantic hurricane activity, the CSU researchers said in a statement.

While the major proponents of global warming insist that more storms would result from a heating of the planet, this change in the forecast actually supports what hurricane experts say would actually happen in a global warming scenerio. However, don't look for Dr. Gray to support your global warming theories. He thinks it's a hoax.