NASA/Goddard Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd: , our email newsletter. This year’s Atlantic hurricane season should be “near normal,” government forecasters announced on Thursday , with the likelihood of nine to 15 named storms, and two to four major Category 3 hurricanes with winds of 111 miles per hour or greater. Hurricane season officially begins on June 1 and runs through Nov. 30, with the peak coming in August, September and October. This week, a subtropical storm, Andrea, weak and short-lived, slipped in — the fifth year in a row that a storm gained enough strength to warrant a name before the season’s start. (Storms generally get named when they reach wind speeds of 39 miles per hour.) Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University, said that “this is the first time on record that the Atlantic has had five […]