The Bush administration is increasing funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations’s (NOAA) hurricane research and forecast improvements’ efforts by $13 million for fiscal year (FY) 2009, the agency said.

The $13 million, plus the original $4 million request, will bring total funding for NOAA’s Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project to $17 million for FY 2009, according to NOAA. The additional funding will aid NOAA scientists in their efforts to more accurately forecast tropical storms, hurricane intensity, the path of dangerous storms and related storm surges.

The project seeks to improve hurricane track forecast accuracy by 20% for Days 1 through 5 by 2013; improve hurricane intensity forecast accuracy by 20% for Days 1 through 5 by 2013; and extend the lead time for hurricane forecasts out to Day 7, NOAA said.

Planning for the project began after the 2005 hurricane season — the most active on record — that produced several monster storms, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

NOAA hurricane scientists announced last Thursday an increase in probability to 85% that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season will be above normal with 14-18 named storms, including seven to 10 hurricanes. So far in 2008 the region has seen five named storms, leaving a long way to go to the end of the season in November (see Daily GPI, Aug. 8). But none of the storms has been a significant threat to the oil and natural gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

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