An early forecast of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season predicts an extremely active season. The predictions, released Thursday by the Colorado State University hurricane forecasting team, include 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes, and 5 major (Category 3 or stronger) hurricanes — all of those are well above average over the last three decades. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, is increasing hurricane precipitation, exacerbating storm surges and flooding, and fueling more intense hurricanes as measured by wind or central pressure. The CSU forecast also predicts above-average chances of those storms hitting the U.S. (Yale Climate Connections, Washington Post $, Axios, New York Times $, CNN; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes)
