Hurricanes threaten people living in the Caribbean and on the eastern seaboard of the United States every year between August and October, the hurricane season. Some years — like last year, in which six large and destructive Atlantic hurricanes hit the coast — are worse than others.

Winds in the atmosphere drive storm systems westward toward North America or eastward into the Atlantic Ocean. In work sponsored by the United Kingdom insurance industry and published in the April 20 Nature, Mark Saunders and Adam Lea of the University College London determined that these “steering wind currents” could provide a way to predict how severe the hurricane season will be.

Read the full story, posted online April 20.

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