FORECASTERS are hoping a new prediction system known as Wavewatch III will help improve hurricane warnings and reduce storm-related deaths.

As Bermuda hopes to avoid the destruction and tragedy caused by Hurricane Fabian last year, the United States is hoping the new technology will prevent similar occurrences.

Described as "a suite of forecast models" the technology is capable of issuing severe-wave and tide warnings.

"The real issue is safety," Joseph Sienkiewicz of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ocean Prediction Centre told CNN News.

It is hoped that the technology can avert disasters such as happened five years ago when a huge wave loomed out of the ocean and swept two people to their deaths in at Acadia National Park in Maine.

"A storm hundreds of miles out at sea can make beaches untenable," Mr. Sienkiewicz explained. "In the case of the Acadia Park drownings, Hurricane Gert was near Bermuda but generated swells that affected much of the East Coast." What many people don't realise, he added, is that a severe storm can cause dangerous wave and surf thousands of miles away. That worry isn't limited to the United States. Posts on Environment Canada's web site regarding the 2004 season echo the concern.

"Last year was a sobering reminder that we cannot be complacent about these kinds of storms in Canada as we experienced our worst year for hurricanes since the Great Escuminac Disaster of 1959 when a freakish June tropical cyclone claimed the lives of 35 mariners in the Gulf of St. Lawrence," it reads. "During a three week period in September 2003, Hurricane Fabian streaked through the Grand Banks and killed three mariners, Tropical Storm Isabel resulted in one traffic fatality as it weakened over Ontario, and Hurricane Juan claimed a total of eight lives as it entered the records books as the most widely destructive Atlantic Canadian hurricane in over 100 years."

The usual way of thinking is that unless a warning is specifically issued that a storm is to strike in your area, it's perfectly safe to enter the water.

Although not used by Bermuda forecasters at present, Wavewatch III's capabilities are being taken seriously by forecasters in the United States ? three-day forecasts are soon to be expanded so that warnings are issued five-days in advance of a storm.

According to a report by CNN, Wavewatch III sees reports of weather and ocean conditions worldwide "fed into giant computers that use a complex series of mathematical formulas to calculate how conditions will change over time".

The overall worldwide model is continually updated, able to predict 180 hours into the future. A more localised model which concentrates on the tropical Atlantic, warns of conditions as close as 72 hours ahead.

"That allows forecasters to warn people of possible high tides, strong waves and even dangerous rip currents caused by storms hundreds of miles away that may never even approach the coast," Mr. Sienkiewicz said.