Forecast: big hurricane season

With the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season just three weeks away, AccuWeather.com's chief storm forecaster said Tuesday that the East and Gulf coasts should be prepared for as many as five storms with hurricane-force winds, The Baltimore Sun reports.

"I'm very, very concerned about this year," said Joe Bastardi, the private company's chief long-range and hurricane forecaster, echoing the warnings of other meteorologists in recent months.

"The weather patterns that are setting up now on the Atlantic are very similar to those in 1995, 1998 and 2005, and also to some extent 2008," he said. "All these were high-impact years on the U.S. coastline."

The 2005 season produced a record 27 named storms, including Katrina, which flooded New Orleans, and Rita, which struck with Category 3 winds along the Texas-Louisiana border.