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Climate experts expect less eventful hurricane season

DPA LIFE
Published May 30,2018
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Heavy winds and rain from Hurricane Irma are seen in Miami, Florida on September 10, 2017. (File Photo)

After the insurance industry paid out record damages for last year's hurricane season, climate experts are expecting this year's tropical storm season in the North Atlantic to be less eventful.

Forecasts by several research institutes say that this year's season will be average, climate experts for German reinsurers Munich Re said on Wednesday.

The long-term average for the hurricane season, lasting from the summer until the early autumn off the coasts of the United States and Caribbean islands, is 6.3 tropical storms.

In 2017, there were 10 hurricanes, the most destructive being Harvey, Irma and Maria, which laid waste to the Caribbean and parts of the US east coast.

Damages resulting from the 2017 hurricane season were a record 220 billion dollars.

The hurricane season starts each year at the beginning of June.

The coastal states "must prepare themselves for a normal tropical storm season in which one hurricane or even one strong hurricane could hit them," Munich Re climate experts Eberhard Faust and Mark Bove wrote in a report.

They expect between five and nine hurricanes, the same as the US meteorological authorities.

The experts were proved wrong in 2017, which they had said would be a below-average season for hurricanes, but instead ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic were unusually warm, leading to more hurricanes.

Munich Re is the world's largest insurer and has its own dedicated climate department. Torsten Jeworrek of the company's board said in the long term Munich Re does not expect more storms, just more powerful and damaging ones, which could lead to higher pay-outs.