Federal forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. yesterday forecast that 14 named tropical storms will hit the United States this year.

"Hurricane season is upon us. We need to communicate down to the personal level - preparedness, now is the time," said Bill Read, National Hurricane Center director.

Over the last several decades an average of about 10 named storms have formed each year but last year U.S. experienced 16 named storms, of which eight grew into hurricanes; five of them major.

There has been a considerable growth in seasonal hurricane forecasting, taking into account that Gray and Klotzbach issue their first forecast for the following season immediately after the end of the last, and other groups soon follow. On this Jeff Masters, director of meteorology opined that science is approaching the threshold of being able to make much improved forecasts.

“Users of these forecasts need to keep in mind that these are very much research products and are going to be highly variable in performance,” he said. “There is the risk that spectacular failures of forecasts will turn people off to seasonal hurricane forecasting, when the long-term outlook for their success is good.”

Gerry Bell, NOAA’s lead seasonal forecaster is of opinion that it’s impossible to predict where exactly a hurricane will strike because a storm’s path is so dependent upon prevailing weather atmospheric patterns at that precise time.

“Those weather patterns are simply not predictable more than five to seven days in advance,” Bell said.