Hatches

It may be a little early to batten down the hatches, but an above-average Atlantic Basin tropical cyclone season is on its way in 2010 with a higher-than-average probability of a major storm making landfall in the United States and the Caribbean, Colorado State University’s (CSU) hurricane forecasters said this week.

Hurricane experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said last week that they expect the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season to have above normal levels of activity, which supports an earlier forecast by Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University (see NGI, April 7).

Hurricane experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Monday that they expect the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season to have above normal levels of activity, which supports an earlier forecast by Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University (see Daily GPI, April 7).

If government predictions are correct, Gulf of Mexico producerscould be shutting in more rigs and shuttling more workers to safetythis hurricane season than last.

Gulf producers battened down the hatches on hundreds ofplatforms yesterday, shut in more than 2.5 Bcf/d of gas andscrambled ashore as Tropical Storm Earl, which seemed to pop out ofnowhere Monday, rapidly gained strength and appeared likely tobecome the Gulf’s first hurricane by this morning. At 4 p.m.yesterday, the National Weather Service said hurricane warningswere in effect from Pascagoula, MS, to Cameron, LA. Hurricanewatches were in effect from east of Pascagoula to Destin, FL, andwest of Cameron to High Island, TX. Earl was centered near 27degrees north latitude and 93 degrees west longitude, moving northnortheast at 12 mph with 60 mph winds. The NWS said it expectedEarl to become a hurricane prior to landfall.