CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Peak hurricane season is about to start and I'll bet those of you who live along the coastlines want to know if it's going to be a harsh one. Well, according to our John Zarrella, the answer depends on who you ask.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the National Hurricane Center, the sound of typing is a good thing. It means the tropics are quiet. But an updated government forecast for the remainder of the hurricane season is still calling for a nasty few months to come.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look it! Look at that! Look at that!</s>ZARRELLA: Forecasters say they expect to see three to four major hurricanes, the kind that do the worst damage, and a total of 12 to 15 named storms.</s>MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: We are still confident that it will be an above normal season.</s>ZARRELLA: But noted hurricane expert Bill Gray, who has been forecasting storm numbers for decades, says he does not think the peak hurricane months of August and September will be as active as he first thought and just because there were four early season storms doesn't mean the trend will continue.</s>BILL GRAY, ATMOSPHERIC SCIENTIST: So people should not interpret the very active season we've had so far as indicative of what's going to follow. We don't think that it will.</s>ZARRELLA: Gray and national hurricane forecasters agree that the expected la nina weather conditions, which make it easier for hurricanes to develop, have not materialized. Gray says that, coupled with other atmospheric changes, will put a bit of a lid on hurricane activity. But...</s>GRAY: It just takes that one hurricane over your community to make for a bad year.</s>ZARRELLA: Like in August, 1992, a slow hurricane year, when Andrew devastated south Florida. John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.
Peak Hurricane Season About to Start