Federal scientists are predicting a near-normal hurricane season in the Atlantic and above-normal cyclone activity in the central Pacific.

The forecasts come on the heels of a destructive 2018 season. In September, slow-moving Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina and dumped as much as 35 inches of rain in some areas , causing devastating flooding. The following month, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle as one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the U.S. in decades.

At one point last year, four named storms were active simultaneously, Wilbur Ross, secretary of the Department of Commerce, said at a news conference Thursday in Washington. Like Hamlets slings of arrows of outrageous fortune, the storms that impacted the U.S. in 2018 caused $50 billion in damages.

The 2019 Atlantic outlook estimates a 40 percent chance of an average season, with the development of nine to 15 named tropical storms. Four to eight of those storms, the agency predicted, will become hurricanes. And two to four will become major hurricanes that is, Category 3 or higher.

The outlook includes all activity in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. It does not forecast how many storms might make landfall.

The key message is were expecting a normal season, but regardless thats a lot of activity, Gerry Bell, the lead hurricane season forecaster with NOAAs Climate Prediction Center, said Thursday. You need to start getting prepared for the hurricane season now.