Those living in the Caribbean may want to start battening down the hatches if a recent Accuweather.com report has merit. The forecasters are predicting a higher number of hurricanes than the typical yearly average due to the Atlantic ocean's warm water cycle and a subsiding La Nine condition in the Pacific ocean. They also claim there is a higher probability the hurricanes will make landfall in North America.

At the beginning of the month, one expert predicted that there would be 12 or 13 named storms during the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season, with as many as four of them developing into hurricanes. One of those storms is expected to turn into a major hurricane.

"The warming is not uniform across the entire Atlantic. In some areas where hurricanes normally form ... ocean water temperatures are near or below normal," Joe Bastardi, AccuWeather's chief long-range forecaster, said in a news release.

While the average hurricane season sees 10 named storms, even one major hurricane is a pretty scary thought when you think of the impact Katrina had on New Orleans, a city still trying to recover from the devastating effects. This is one of those times where you actually hope a weather forecaster will be wrong in their prediction. However if Katrina is any indication, that may be be naive optimism.

» Reuters