The world?s hurricane experts have predicted another very active Atlantic hurricane season for 2005.

On April 1, hurricane expert Dr. William Gray and his team of scientists at Colorado State University said the upcoming hurricane season will be 19 percent stormier than the last.

In 2004, Hurricanes Charley, Francis, Jean and Ivan smashed into the US as well as the Caribbean and both Grenada and the Cayman Islands were flattened.

During the 2005 season from June 1 to November 30, Dr. Gray predicted there will be 13 named storms and seven hurricanes.

Three of these hurricanes are predicted to be intense category three or above hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson scale. These major storms are capable of packing sustained winds of 179 kilometres per hour.

They also expect an above-average risk of major hurricanes hitting the Caribbean in 2005.

The odds of at least one major hurricane hitting somewhere along the US coastline in 2005 are 73 percent, compared with a long-term probability of 52 percent, according to the report. About one in three major hurricanes make landfall in the US based on historical averages.

Meteorologist James Morrison of the Bermuda Weather Service yesterday indicated that Bermuda?s fate in 2005 rests on the strength and position of the Bermuda Azores high.

?There is some speculation the high will be in the same position as last summer,? Mr. Morrison said.

He said the high pressure pushed the four deadly Atlantic hurricanes of 2004 out of our way and towards Florida.

?But in the year of Fabian, the high was not as established which allowed the hurricane to come on top of us,? he said. ?Our season will depend on where the high sits in the Atlantic.?

Although it is still too early to accurately predict where and how the Bermuda Azores high will form, he said they will have a better idea by May or June.

However, the Weather Service is already starting to see the beginnings of the high starting to establish itself, he said.

He said Dr. Gray?s report is followed by the National Hurricane Centre in the US, upon which the Bermuda Weather Service bases its information.

The reason for the scientific world?s reliance upon Dr. Gray?s report is his 20-year record of accuracy.

On April 2, 2004, his report said there would be eight hurricanes. By the end of the season, nine had formed.

The 2004 report said there would be 14 named storms but there were 13.

Three major hurricanes were predicted for 2004, however, the above average season produced six killer storms.

In an average season there are 10 tropical storms and six hurricanes and two of these hurricanes typically are severe.

There is a chance the El Nino effect, which is the warming of the ocean?s surface of the western coast of South America, could reduce the amount of hurricanes in the Atlantic. However, the Gray report said the likelihood of this was declining.

?The United States has entered a new era of enhanced hurricane activity reflective of the high activity during eight of the last 10 years,? Dr. Philip Klotzback, another author of the Gray report said. ?We expect this active tropical cyclone area to continue this year and to span over the next two or three decades.?