We last spoke with Dr. Steve Smith midway through the 2006 hurricane season three months ago, where he reassessed weather predictions and stated that the season would turn out to be an average one. Now that the 2006 storm season has officially come to a close, Claims' went back to get Smith's overall impressions of activity in both the Atlantic and Pacific, and also ask him about factors influencing next year's activity.
This year was the least costly hurricane season in 10 years. Preseason predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were significantly over inflated. What happened in the Atlantic?
The expectation at the beginning of the season was that the Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) would remain high from the 2005 season. Warm waters mean more energy for hurricanes to form. The further expectation was that there wouldn't be an El Nino or a La Nina — El Nino suppresses hurricane formation, La Nina enhances it — so that the El Nino effect was expected to play no part.
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