Nightly News   |  May 24, 2012

Big hurricanes likely this year

The Weather Channel’s hurricane expert Rick Knabb examines this year’s hurricane predictions, explaining that the forecasters cannot predict where landfalls will occur – so even below normal seasons can present danger.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>> with us tonight, the hurricane expert at the weather channel , dr. rick knabb, who we're proud to say has been selected and is about to become the new trecter of the national hurricane center . can you blame a civilian like me for asking a guy like you, in light of we saw new england torn up, joplin, tuscaloosa. all the severe weather . why wouldn't that mean an equally severe hurricane season en route ?

>> unfortunately, we're just not very good at this stage before the official hurricane season even starts of telling you where the systems are going to go. if we look at the total numbers in the forecast, including from noaa and the weather channel . the numbers are in the same ballpark, pretty close to the long term average, but look what we say all the time. they can't predict if or where landfalls occur. even if we have an average season or below average season in terms of total numbers, as tom mentioned, hurricane andrew , 20th anniversary. there was a year where there were four total hurricanes. but that four hurricane total had one major andrew hitting south florida , brian. it can be a bad yew year for you even if it's a bad year.

>> congratulations are in order considering the next time we speak it will probably be in the midst of one of these storms on the way. appreciate you joining us from the weather channel .