CSU team forecasts above-average tropical storms

FORT COLLINS, Colo.--The hurricane forecasting team at Colorado State University continues to predict above-average tropical storm activity for the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, which begins Friday.

In a forecast released Thursday, the team repeated the prediction it had issued on April 3. The prediction calls for the formation of 17 named storms, nine of which will grow into hurricanes. Five of those hurricanes will reach intense status, with winds of at last 111 mph, according to the forecast.

"We have maintained our forecast from our early April prediction due largely to the continued trend towards cooler equatorial Pacific seas surface temperatures," the Colorado State team said in its forecast.

The team also said there is a 74% probability that at least one major hurricane will make landfall somewhere on the U.S. coastline this season, compared with the average of the last century of 52% probability