Scientists' Crystal Ball Predicts Active 2009 Hurricane Season

From a local standpoint, the recently concluded hurricane season seemed to be a non-event, but less lucky locales such as Cuba and Haiti got hit hard by strong storms. Overall, it was an above average season, and next year is shaping up to follow in its path.

A well-respected Colorado State University team is predicting 14 named storms. This year produced 16, while the average is only 10 or 11. Of those 14, they predict three will be major hurricanes, Category 3 or stronger. Of course they can hardly predict the path of a storm while it's active, let alone six months in advance, so no word on how many might mess up Miami. Let's just hope Hurricane Joaquin, Odette, and, uh, Fred steer clear.

-- Kyle Munzenrieder