With August underway we can expect more revisions in the season's hurricane forecasts from the nation's most visible tropical forecast teams.

The Colorado State University team of Phil Klotzbach and William Gray today issued their August revisions, slightly lowering their expectations for the 2009 Atlantic season because of continued intensification of the El Nino conditions in the tropical Pacific.

The federal government's NOAA forecasters will issue their August revisions on Thursday. AccuWeather.com has already chimed in with a predictions for a below-average season.

Klotzbach and Gray said today they're now expecting a below-average season, with 10 named storms, down from the 11 in their June forecast. There have been none so far. Four of the storms will become hurricanes (down from five), and two of those will reach "major" (Category 3 or higher) strength (no change), they said.

The long-term averages are 9.6 named storms, 5.9 hurricanes and 2.3 major storms per season.

CSU's dynamic duo cite the continuing development of warm El Nino conditions in the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean as a contributing factor in their latest forecast. El Ninos tend to increase wind shear in the Atlantic, cutting off storm development.

While sea-surface temperatures in the Atlantic have increased some since June, and surface air pressures have fallen - normally things that would increase hurricane formation - the impact of El Nino will be enough to overwhelm those Atlantic factors and suppress storm formation, they said.

The chances of an East Coast landfall, they said, are 46 percent, compared with a half-century average of 52 percent. The chances that a major hurricane will come ashore on the East Coast is 27 percent, compared with 31 percent over the last half-century.

For the record, the National Hurricane Center is currently watching a stormy area far out in the tropical Atlantic, but there are no signs of quick storm development.

(SUN PHOTO/Amy Davis/ Downtown Baltimore during Isabel in 2003)