Forecasters at Colorado State University are calling for a slightly below-average 2017 Atlantic hurricane season in their inital forecast released Thursday - thanks in part to some unexpected conditions.
"The tropical Atlantic has anomalously cooled over the past month and the far North Atlantic is relatively cold," said the report:
"We estimate that 2017 will have 4 hurricanes (median is 6.5), 11 named storms (median is 12.0), 50 named storm days (median is 60.1), 16 hurricane days (median is 21.3), 2 major (Category 3-4-5) hurricane (median is 2.0) and 4 major hurricane days (median is 3.9)."
There is also a below-average probability for major hurricanes making landfall along the United States coastline and in the Caribbean, though as always, forecasters urge preparedness as it only takes one hurricane making landfall to make it an "active season" for those in danger.
The CSU forecasting team will update their forecast on June 1, the start of the 2017 hurricane season.
Photo: Getty Images