WASHINGTON - The return of a La Nina weather pattern this year could trigger a higher-than-normal number of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, US government weather forecasters said Tuesday.
"Although other scientific factors affect the frequency of hurricanes, there tends to be a greater-than-normal number of Atlantic hurricanes and fewer-than-normal number of eastern Pacific hurricanes during La Nina events," said Conrad Lautenbacher, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
La Nina is an unusual cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures, which can trigger widespread changes in weather around the world. A La Nina weather pattern occurs about every three to five years and often follows El Nino, a warming of the Pacific water.
Last year's El Nino was widely credited with drastically curtailing the formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, giving a respite to the US Gulf Coast and Central American countries hit hard during the record-setting hurricane season of 2005.
There were only nine tropical storms and hurricanes in the 2006 season, well down from the 28 named storms of 2005 -- including Katrina and Rita -- which caused the flooding of New Orleans and devastated the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi.
NOAA said cooler-than-normal water temperatures have developed "at the surface in the east-central equatorial Pacific, indicating a possible transition to La Nina conditions."
The last lengthy La Nina occurred from 1998 to 2001, leading to drought across much of the western United States.
US government weather forecasters said they will issue their spring weather forecast March 15 and an Atlantic Hurricane outlook in May.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
