You can expect fewer significant storms for hurricane season, but the storms are getting more intense.

Megan Kirchmeier-Young with the Canadian Hurricane Centre says it’s because of climate change.

“We are seeing an increase in intensity, so a larger proportion of storms that are reaching major hurricane status, the categories three to five,” said Kirchmeier-Young.

She also said that climate change is bringing more rainfall with every storm, and sea level rise also makes storm surges worse and increases the risk for coastal flooding.

The Hurricane Centre released their predictions for this year on Friday. The season runs from June 1 to September 30, with the worst conditions in August, September, and October.

Last year the region had 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, with 5 designated as category 3 or higher. Predictions were between 17-25 for named storms, 8-13 for hurricanes, and 4-7 for major hurricanes.

This year the predictions range from 13-20 for named storms, 6-10 for hurricanes, and 3-5 for major hurricanes.

“We typically get about 35 to 40 per cent of the storms that form in the Atlantic somehow find their way into our response zone. So we can count on, typically, two to four hurricanes or tropical storms that will enter our response zone on any given year. Not all of those will have impacts on land, and like we saw last year, sometimes they can have indirect impacts,” said Bob Robichaud, with the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

This year predictions show less named storms, but a similar amount of major hurricanes.