Forecasters at Colorado State University – the group to pioneer seasonal hurricane forecasting in the early 1980s – issued its first outlook for the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season on Thursday. Their outlook calls for an “extremely active” hurricane season in 2024, with 23 named storms, 11 hurricanes, and five hurricanes to reach Category 3, 4, or 5 status, with winds of 111 mph or stronger.
When Dr. Robert Simpson boarded a military helicopter from Miami on Aug. 19, 1969, bound for the central Gulf Coast, little could prepare him for the horrors he would witness as the first National Hurricane Center director to survey the immediate aftermath of a hurricane.