Climate Factors Causing the Extremely Active 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season will go down as one of the most active on record, with historic levels of damage across the basin, yet few forecasting groups saw such a busy season coming ahead of time. This talk will focus on what pre-season climate factors best foretold the active season, and which factors were unclear, including a brief review of the 2017 Atlantic seasonal hurricane forecasts. The question of whether the Atlantic is in a quiet or active era will also be addressed both in how it affected the 2017 seasonal hurricane forecasts and what could lie ahead for the Atlantic basin.