THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503060047
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
Dr. William Mason Gray, the Colorado State University hurricane expert, is sticking to his prediction that this will be a bad, bad summer with lots of big storms clawing up the Atlantic Coast.
That puts Gray in a familiar position: He disagrees with the National Weather Service.
Gray's storm forecasts have been remarkably accurate over the past decade, and he expects eight hurricanes this year, three of them intense. A key factor in his complicated formulas is the presence or absence of an El Nino along the west coast of South America.
El Nino is a huge dome of warm central Pacific water that moves east to displace the normally cold Antarctic currents that bathe the coast of Peru.
Hurricanes are rare on the U.S. East Coast when there is an El Nino in South America, Gray says.
El Nino is up to strength on the west coast of South America, the National Weather Service says, and the warm waters will remain in place through most of this spring and summer. Gray thinks El Nino will dissipate and be gone by this summer's hurricane season, opening the door to the visits of the great Atlantic storms. MEMO: Related story on page A1.
KEYWORDS: WEATHER HURRICANE by CNB