In their initial 2025 forecast, Colorado State University (CSU) hurricane researchers are predicting an above-average Atlantic hurricane season.

The CSU team is predicting 17 named storms during the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Of those storms, researchers forecast nine to become hurricanes and four to become Category 3, 4 or 5 storms. 

Similarly, AccuWeather forecasters are predicting 13 to 18 named storms during the 2025 hurricane season, with seven to 10 predicted to strengthen into hurricanes and three to five to become Category 3 or higher.

The prediction is slightly above the 30-year average total for both hurricanes and storms, and also near the total of 18 storms, 11 hurricanes and five Category 3-plus hurricanes in 2024. The 2024 season was very active and destructive, becoming the third-costliest on record, behind only 2017 and 2005.

The CSU team explained the 2025 forecast is based on warmer temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the unlikelihood of El Niño conditions. Further, there is a moderate chance of La Niña conditions from August through to October, according to the latest forecasts from NOAA, which is the reason for the slightly elevated hurricane season activity.

El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, with El Niño characterized by warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific and La Niña bringing cooler-than-normal temperatures.

Will Jones is IA editor-in-chief.