(Bloomberg) – The coming Atlantic hurricane season should produce a near-average 12 named storms before it ends in November, said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the pioneering Colorado State University forecast.

At least five of those storms will reach hurricane status, and two of them will become Category 3 or stronger systems on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. A disturbance gets a name when its cyclonic winds reach 39 mph, which is when it also is classified a tropical storm.

Klotzbach, lead author of the seasonal outlook developed by William Gray, said this year was a difficult one to predict.

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