Canadian Hurricane Centre says active storm season predicted for East Coast

The Canadian Hurricane Centre is predicting an active storm season off the country's East Coast this year, mainly due to record warm water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.

Canada's East Coast is likely to see an active storm season this year because of record high water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, say hurricane forecasters.

In a briefing Thursday, Bob Robichaud, meteorologist at the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Halifax, told reporters conditions for an active season are also "lining up" because of cooling surface water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

He said climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean are transitioning away from El Nino, which brought above-average water temperatures last year, to La Nina, which typically leads to more storms in the Atlantic.

"Not only are we getting rid of El Nino, but the water temperatures are at record values in the tropical Atlantic right now and that's why we're expecting a very active hurricane season this year," he said.

Robichaud pointed to numbers released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States predicting 17 to 25 named storms with eight to 13 of those becoming hurricanes and four to seven becoming major hurricanes.

"They (NOAA) always try to achieve a 70 per cent confidence in their forecast and this year that's actually up to 85 per cent so there's a very high confidence level that it will be an active season," Robichaud said.

Typically, about 35 per cent of the storms that form in the Atlantic Basin travel to Canadian waters, although in any given year that average can vary wildly, he said.