Conditions in Atlantic ripe for big 2011 hurricane season, US says

"We cannot count on having the same luck this year," Dr. Lubchenco added.

Several broad factors are contributing to the amped-up outlooks, researchers and forecasters say.

Surface waters in the tropical Atlantic, where many storms form, remain warmer than normal for this time of year – about 2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal now, compared with 4 degrees F. above normal last year. Storms grow and feed on those warm waters.

In addition, the 2011 season falls within an active phase of a broader, multi-decade cycle of heavier and lighter hurricane activity.

And the Atlantic is still under the influence of the long arm of a waning La Niña, part of a cycle that includes El Niño.

This "El Niño/Southern Oscillation" is manifest in seesaw patterns in atmospheric pressure and ocean temperatures across the tropical Pacific. These changes affect broader atmospheric circulation patterns, in ways that favor hurricane formation during La Niña episodes.

NOAA's seasonal outlook says nothing about whether or how many hurricanes will make landfall – an aspect of hurricane forecasting that, for the most part, is still a gleam in the eye of researchers.

Hence the importance of everyone living in low-lying areas along the Atlantic or Gulf Coasts being ready to leave, to avoid the flooding a hurricane's storm surge can bring.

"It takes only one hurricane to wreak devastation," Lubchenco said.

Individual preparedness is critical, emergency managers say. For people who physically and financially can prepare, following through on those preparations when needed frees up limited resources to focus on people who can't help themselves. And those preparations – which include keeping important financial documents in a family's "go kit" – can smooth the recovery process.

Unfortunately, people can experience "hurricane amnesia," adds Craig Fugate, who heads the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in Washington. He is referring to the long time spans that can elapse between landfalling hurricanes in any one location, and the tendency of people to forget how serious the storms can be.

The amnesia problem is especially acute along the Northeast coast, he suggests, because relatively few hurricanes have made landfall there over the past few decades.

In other cases, he continues, people will say they've experienced a hurricane and say that the experience wasn't too bad, when they actually have experienced only a hurricane's outer, tropical-storm-force winds.

"If you live along the Gulf Coast, if you live along the Atlantic Coast, you have your notice – it's going to be an above average season," he says.

And it starts June 1.

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