User:Cucurbitaceae/Season

The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will be an event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. The season will officially start on June 1, 2011 and end on November 30. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin. However, the formation of tropical cyclones is possible at any time.

Seasonal forecasts
Klotzbach's team (formerly led by Gray) defined the average number of storms per season (1950 to 2000) as 9.6 tropical storms, 5.9 hurricanes, 2.3 major hurricanes (storms reaching at least Category 3 strength in the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) and ACE Index 96.1. NOAA defines a season as above-normal, near-normal or below-normal by a combination of the number of named storms, the number reaching hurricane strength, the number reaching major hurricane strength and ACE Index.

Storm names
The following names will be used for named storms that form in the North Atlantic in 2011. Retired names, if any, will be announced by the World Meteorological Organization in the spring of 2012. The names not retired from this list will be used again in the 2017 season. This is the same list used in the 2005 season with the exception of Don, Katia, Rina, Sean, and Whitney, which replaced Dennis, Katrina, and Rita, Stan, and Whitney, respectively.