Hurricane season officially opened June 1, and there's plenty of speculation about how active it'll be. Dr. William Gray, a renowned tropical forecaster from Colorado State, was calling for 12 tropical storms, with 7 becoming hurricanes, but he's now backed off slightly to 11 storms and six hurricanes. Those numbers are still very close to average.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also issues long-range tropical forecasts for the Atlantic. They're predicting between nine and thirteen tropical storms, with six to eight becoming hurricanes. Though this outlook isn't as specific as Dr. Gray's, it's in the same ballpark.

October 1999 was the last time a hurricane made landfall in the United States - it was Irene in Florida. Since then, 18 have formed, a record for the most hurricanes in a row without one striking the U.S. But even tropical storms can bring devastating results. One year ago, Allison was responsible for 24 deaths and $5 billion in damage from Texas to Pennsylvania.