The hurricane season is far from being over, and September is likely to bring at least five more named storms, four of which will become hurricanes, William Gray and Phil Klotzbach from Colorado State University’s forecast team revealed.

Although they said this should not be considered as a new seasonal forecast, their predictions don’t look very promising. Two of the four expected hurricanes are said to turn into major ones, category 3-4-5, all amid a hurricane activity at about 190 percent of the September average.

Phil Klotzbach explained that September should be quite active from this point of view, if we take into consideration the lowest pressure readings on record in the tropical Atlantic during August and the water temperatures that remain above-average in the tropical Atlantic. These two factors point to an active hurricane activity in September.

This year, the hurricane season proved to be very active, with three named storms during June-July, Bertha, Cristobal and Dolly, the last of which turned into a Category 2 hurricane. In August, Gustav was the major hurricane of the month.

The team at CSU said they would continue to improve their forecasts, by using climate-related global and regional predictors, adding that on October 1, they will be offering the prediction for October. The hurricane season starts in June, and ends by September 30.

Earlier this year, NOAA predicted that the hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin will be above normal, and warned that residents in the usually affected areas should be prepared for evacuation. Tropical cyclones have been responsible for killing millions of people and causing significant property damage. Hurricane Katrina killed over 1,800 people in the U.S. and cause damage estimated at $100 billion.