Meteorologists Say Northeast Could See "Whopper" Hurricane

Meteorologists, who were spot-on in forecasting last year's harsh Atlantic hurricane season, are predicting that the 2006 season could deliver a "whopper" of a storm to the Northeastern US.

Weather experts note that warmer temperatures in the Atlantic and cooler temperatures in the Pacific make conditions ripe for a hurricane to track more northward than usual. The patterns are similar to those present during the devastating "Long Island Express" of 1938, the region's worst recorded hurricane. That Category 5 storm (before today's storm-naming convention was established) produced wind gusts of 183 MPH and left 600 dead along the Long Island and New England coasts.



Recent hurricanes have weakened considerably before they reached the Northeast, but experts predict that a storm as powerful as a Category 3 could make landfall anywhere from Northern New Jersey to the coast of Maine.

Source: AP (via Yahoo)