July 2011, Vol. 238 No. 7

Features

Active Hurricane Season Forecast For 2011 On U.S. Gulf Coast

Over the past two years, the U.S. has been fortunate with regards to land falling tropical systems. In 2009, only two tropical systems made landfall along the Gulf Coast. Claudette made landfall as a weak tropical storm and Hurricane Ida weakened to tropical storm status as it approached the Mississippi Delta in early November. In 2010, no tropical systems made landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The year 2008, however, was a different story. Five tropical systems made land fall along the U.S. Gulf coast, three of which were hurricanes. Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, both strong Category 2 hurricanes, caused a shutdown of significant portions of the pipeline infrastructure, processi