Colorado State University released its first formal forecast for the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. "We anticipate that the 2021Atlantic basin hurricane season will have above-normal activity."
CSU Forecast
Named Storms: 17
Hurricane : 8
Major Hurricanes: 4
Season Average (1981-2010)
Named Storms: 12.1
Hurricane : 6.4
Major Hurricanes: 2.7
The CSU team also included the probability for at least one major hurricane landfall on...
1) Entire continental U.S. coastline: 69%
2) U.S. East Coast (Including Peninsula Florida): 45%
3) Gulf Coast (from the Florida Panhandle to Brownsville): 44%
You can read the full CSU article here: tropical.colostate.edu/Forecast/2021-04.pdf
While these seasonal outlooks are interesting and may give us some perspective to the upcoming hurricane season, it's important to remember that location is more important than numbers. A season with low numbers but multiple local impacts is "more active" than a season with high numbers but no local impacts. One landfall has much more weight than a dozen "fish storms"
The Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1st and ends on November 30th, but storms can (and have) formed outside of the official season dates.
