As the Gulf Coast recovers from the aftermath of both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, many are wondering if hurricane season could get any worse.
According to some weather forecasters, the answer is yes. While most storms tend to track eastward towards Florida it is possibly another large storm could hit the already battered Gulf Coast in October. And some researches also warn the country should continue to brace for more powerful storms for the next 10-40 years.
Mike Brown, an associate professor of Meteorology at Mississippi State University, joined Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley on Friday's 'Connected Coast-to-Coast' to discuss the possibility of another large hurricane hitting the U.S. this year.
"Well, climatologically, we have reached the peak back in mid September," he said. "However there is some activity in the Western Caribbean that has some folks myself included concerned. There's some thunderstorm activity there and it looks like the upper level winds can become favorable for tropical development in 36 or 48 hours."
Brown said that even if the U.S. manages to get through this year without another big hurricane making landfall, it's likely that the country will see many more in coming seasons.
"(We're in) something called the Atlantic multi-decade osolation. Generally, what that is, is a very subtle warming and cooling of the Atlantic waters, specifically in the Northern part of the Atlantic," he said. "That phase we're in now is a warming phase."
"What that does is slightly shift these weather systems. It calms down the sheer in the atmosphere over the Atlantic and it makes storms very conducive to storm generation," he added. "When they do form, we have a high pressure one that's been pushing these things repeatedly into the Gulf, at least this year."
Brown said that he doesn't agree with scientists and others that point to global warming as a cause for increased hurricane activity.
"I think that we're going to have to look at this over a period of a couple of decades," he said. "I've heard that global warming argument myself and if that were true, you'd expect to see an increase in tropical activity across the globe. In fact, while we're seeing an increase in the Atlantic basin, globally, there's been a new decrease in hurricane activity and tropical storm activity."
