The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) announced that new normals have been computed for the Atlantic Hurricane season. CPC will now use normals based on the averages for the thirty year period from 1991-2020. The new normal number of named storms for the Atlantic basin is 14. The new normal for hurricanes is 7 and the normal for major hurricanes is 3.

Climatologists routinely calculate new normals based on the most recent 30 year period at the end of each decade. The previous normals for the Atlantic basin were based on the period from 1981 to 2010. The previous normal for the number of named storms was 12. The previous normal for the number of hurricanes was 6 and the previous normal for the number of major hurricanes was 3. The increases in the number of named storms and hurricanes reflect a more active period that began in 1995.