RALEIGH - NOAA issued its 2013 Atlantic hurricane season outlook on Thursday, revealing an above average forecast.

Nick Petro, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh, says there's a variety of factors for the spike in expected storms,

"Warmer than average water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and the fact that there is not an El Nino expected to develop. In other words water temperatures in the equitorial, central and eastern Pacific ocean are expected to remain at or below normal."

Petro says they expect 13 to 20 named storms, 7 to 11 of which could become hurricanes, and 3 to 6 which could become major hurricanes.