The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, commonly called Noah, released its 2024 hurricane outlook forecasting the greatest number of storms ever predicted for the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1st.

That's this Saturday.

CNET's Kristy Dutton talks to a hurricane expert to find out why this could be a record breaking season.

Hurricane forecasters are warning of a very active hurricane season ahead.

NOAA's scientists are predicting between 17 and 25 named storms.

That's compared to an average of about 14 8 to 13 hurricanes compared to an average of seven and between 4 to 7 major hurricanes.

Is this Category three or four or five?

And that average number is about three.

Matt Rosenkranz joins us now.

Is the lead hurricane season forecaster for Noah.

So, Matt, this is the highest forecast issued ahead of the hurricane season.

Why is it so high?

So one of the major factors in determining tropical storms and hurricanes are the sea surface temperatures and the amount of energy in the ocean.

And right now in the Atlantic Ocean, we are seeing an observing record levels of sea surface temperatures and ocean heat content across the tropical Atlantic.

So that's one major factor that went to this outlook.

Warmer temperatures.

Is this from climate change?

There's a little bit of this from climate change, but there's also a lot of it this year.

That's from the interannual variability.

There was very little cloud cover and the tropical Atlantic allowed all the sun to just kind of really heat up the top layers of the ocean.

And we're also in an active period since 1995 that just features warmer sea surface temperatures in general.

And that's why we've had so many of these active years recently.

Okay.

So what do you tell people to be prepared for a season that's potentially going to be this active?

So I want people to prepare every year as if a storm is going to come to their region or have some kind of influence.

When you're a bit further inland, heavy rain, flooding, flash flooding, those are kind of the really the main concerns.

The weather services updated our flooding and nation mapping project and your local weather forecast office across the state will have that kind of informati Okay.

And now here in Kentucky, we're in a state that's completely landlocked.

We're not on the coast.

So how is how would a very active hurricane season impact us here in the Bluegrass State?

You're more likely to see some recurring storms.

So they make landfall down on Louisiana or Texas and then move up into Kentucky.

And they're likely to not bring a stronger of winds.

But those heavy rains, as those storms move over land, all that moisture they pull up into the air can just fall out of eastern Kentucky with that rugged terrain.

It can get flash flooding very quickly.

So being prepared to get to higher ground very quickly, having that go bag ready and having some of that food ready to go, prepackaged food, a little bit of water ready to go.

So you can make that move in an hour or two if you have to.

It's really going to be critical this year.

Last year was also a busier than average hurricane season in the Atlantic.

Noah says it was the fourth most active Atlantic hurricane season on record, with 20 named storms forming tied with the year 1933.

Among those, 27 became hurricanes, with three reaching major hurricane strength.