Forecasters at Aon Benfield's Tropical Storm Risk arepredicting an above average 2013 Atlantic hurricane season,with three major hurricanes during the course of theseason.

Tropical StormRisk's Mark Saunders and Adam Lea forecast the season, whichruns June 1 to Nov. 30. They see 15 named storms, eighthurricanes and three major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher. Acategory three storm is a hurricanes with sustained winds of 111mph or stronger.

The predictions are unchanged from their initial prognosticationin December.

The combination of slightly weaker trade winds over theCaribbean Sea and tropical North Atlantic from Julythrough September, along with slightly warmer sea surfacetemperatures during August and September, could lead to increasedstorm activity.

While admitting that the forecast is very uncertain, earlyindications researched by Saunders and Lea project a 57percent probability the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season will beabove average. They say there is 29 percent chance for near-normalseason and 14 chance of a below-normal season.

About two weeks ago, ImpactWeather came out with its prediction for 2013 sayingthere could be less storms this year than in 2012, but more majorhurricanes. Last year saw only one major hurricane, but 19 namedstorms, ten of which became hurricanes.

On April 8 The Weather Channel's Weather Services International (WSI) saysit too expects another active hurricane season, with 16 namedstorms, nine hurricanes, and five intense hurricanes expected.

“The one potential fly in the ointment is the possible emergenceof an El Nino event this summer, which would create a lessfavorable environment for tropical development,” says WSI ChiefMeteorologist Dr. Todd Crawford, in a statement. “At this point,climate and statistical model solutions suggest that this outcomeis not particularly likely, however.”

Additionally WeatherBellAnalytics, a meteorological consulting firm that employswell-known meteorologists Joe Bastardi and Joe D'Aleo,similarly predicts a “wild [hurricane] season,” addingthat the ”major-hit drought on the U.S. coast should end.”Multiple major hits are likely, they say in a recently-releasedforecast.