The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be even more active than feared, leading U.S. forecasters said on Wednesday as they predicted 10 hurricanes, five of them major, with a 76 per cent likelihood that a major hurricane would hit the U.S. coastline.

The outlook from the Colorado State University team follows predictions by U.S. government scientists for an intense season that could disrupt efforts to contain a huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill and also batter earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Increasing a previous estimate for a "very active" season, the leading CSU storm research team founded by hurricane forecast pioneer William Gray said the six-month season beginning on 1 June would likely see 18 named tropical storms.

Of these, CSU saw 10 becoming hurricanes, with five becoming major Category 3 or higher hurricanes with winds above 110 miles per hour (177 km per hour).

The CSU scientists increased their forecast from an 7 April prediction of 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

The CSU team saw a 51 per cent chance that a major hurricane would make landfall on the U.S. East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula, and a 51 per cent chance that one would hit the Gulf Coast, from the Florida Panhandle to Brownsville, Texas.

It put the chance of a major hurricane tracking into the Caribbean at 65 per cent.

Detailing weather conditions seen favouring the formation of hurricanes, Gray said the CSU team increased its forecast "due to a combination of a transition from El Nino to current neutral conditions and the continuation of unusually warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures.

 We’ll have more on Dr. Gray’s predictions and what it means for the Caribbean in Friday’s Caymanian Compass.