The start of the 2018 hurricane season is just a few weeks away,and this year, experts have good news, predicting a calmer forecastfor the Atlantic than 2017 brought.

The Weather Company has released its first seasonaltropical forecast for the North Atlantic basin for the 2018 season,and this year, the numbers are closer to the Atlantic Basin's30-year historical average (1981-2010) of 12 named storms, sixhurricanes and three major hurricanes.

Due to cooler tropical Atlantic temperatures and an expectedtrend away from La Nina conditions, the IBM team officiallypredicts 13 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 majorhurricanes of Category 3 or greater intensity for the 2018Atlantic hurricane season.

Related: Lessons learned from the 2017 CATseason

In a deeper analysis of this forecast, The Weather Company teamelaborates on several reasons forecasters are predicting thesenear-average numbers for 2018.

Aside from cooler ocean temperatures, the experts at IBM say theNorth Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), which is defined as a pattern ofpressure gradients over the northern Atlantic Ocean, is expected totrend slightly positive through much of the spring. This createsunfavorable conditions for hurricanes, and decreasesthe chances of an active year.

Hurricane season prep

Dr. Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist at The Weather Company,says that if, like last year, the Atlantic atmospheric patternforces sharply warming tropical waters during late spring and earlysummer, then we could have another more active season.

Further, Crawford adds, the expected trend away from La Ninaconditions may fail again as it did last year. And despite anyforecast, The Weather Company team reminds those on the coast thatit only takes one storm to create devastating and life-threateningdamage. These residents should prepare forhurricane season each year, regardless of what any predictionsmay say.

Crawford adds that while it is still too early to focus onpreferred landfall regions, weather experts at The Weather Companywill be focusing on those predictions over the next few months, andwill be sharing monthly updates to this forecast.

Other seasonal forecasts for named storms (NS), hurricanes (HU)and major hurricanes (MH) include:

• Colorado State University: 14 NS, 7 HU, 3MH
• North Carolina State University: 14-18 NS, 7-11 HU,3-5 MH
• Tropical Storm Risk/University College London:12 TS, 6 HU, 2 MH

The Weather Company provides customized weather information toglobal commodity traders via its industry-leading WSI Trader Website. Check out their website formore industry-specific information.

Related: Seven months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricostruggles to rebuild (Video)