The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center released its 2019 Atlantic basin hurricane forecast last Thursday and the news was good. Well, pretty good. Decent. It could be worse.

It predicted the Atlantic would have a near-normal season, with a 40 percent chance of a near-normal year while there was a 30 percent chance of its being above-normal and a 30 percent probability it would be a below-normal season.