Colorado obviously won’t experience the thrashing winds and rains of a hurricane this year, but the primary forecasters of the often-destructive natural occurrences live here, leading Americans on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to pay particular attention to our state at this time of year. Colorado State University forecasters are predicting an above-average season: 15 tropical storms may form in the Atlantic between June 1 and November 30, eight of which could become hurricanes, writes the Fort Collins Coloradoan. CSU professor William Gray says there is a 69 percent chance that one of those storms could make landfall in the United States, which is above the 52 percent average predicted throughout the 20th century. Factoring into the forecast are conditions that include unusually warm water in the Atlantic Ocean and a diminishing El Niño pattern in the Pacific Ocean (El Niño otherwise produces strong winds in the upper atmosphere that calm developing hurricanes), notes USA Today. Since 2000, the team has under-forecast the number of named tropical storms and hurricanes four times, over-forecast three times, and been almost right—within two storms—three times. Meanwhile, as the summer shapes up, prepare for an assault on your sinuses: Pollen, from Florida to Texas to Colorado, is going to be unbearable. Experts say levels will be the worst they’ve seen in years, points out The Associated Press.