Hurricanes: Era of tropical intensity could last another 20 years

From Ken Kayes Storm Center:

As many know, we are currently in an era of heightened tropical intensity, where an abnormal number of hurricanes and major hurricanes tend to form each year.

This storm season, for instance, has seen eight hurricanes, including five intense ones. That’s far more than the average of six hurricanes, two intense.

Here’s the question:

Now that the season is almost over, is the era of intensity almost over?

Not even close, says Phil Klotzbach, who teams up with William Gray at Colorado State University to provide seasonal forecasts.

“Typically, these active periods last about 25 to 40 years,” he wrote me in an e-mail this week. “We entered a new active era in 1995, so we likely have another 10 to 20 years of active seasons to go.”

Ten to 20 more years?>>>MORE