document: Forecasters preparing for Thursday 's opening of the Atlantic hurricane season wish they could predict the arrival of new technological help they say may be crucial to ever-growing coastal populations . The Air Force has agreed to fly hurricane reconnaissance flights for two more years , but has made it clear it plans to phase out the missions . And only one satellite is available for tracking hurricanes . `` We just have nothing right now to lean on , '' says Ken McKinnon , a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Tom Lewis of North Palm Beach , Fla. , who has introduced a bill in Congress to keep hurricane hunters flying at least another five years . `` We 've got one satellite and they 're telling us it 'll do the job . If it blinks , how do you track weather ? '' The Air Force does n't want to be involved . `` We have in the last few years examined our need for manned weather reconnaissance and feel there 's no real compelling military reason , '' said spokesman Lt. Col. Darrell Hayes . `` We 're not disputing that the hurricane center and the weather service need the data . We 're just saying there may be more appropriate agencies to provide the information , '' he said , adding that the service had approached the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about taking over the flights . Besides the flights , forecasters depend on radar and satellite data . The single working weather satellite was n't intended to be alone . A second satellite failed , and a replacement for the failed craft was blown up in a mishap on the launch pad , forcing forecasters to make do . There are new satellites on the horizon , says Bob Sheets , director of the National Hurricane Center . But they 've been due for a long time and are n't expected before late 1990 . `` It is a major concern for us , '' Sheets said . Forecasters also are worried about a shift in the pattern of hurricane activity in recent years . Since 1985 , Sheets said , there seem to be more hurricanes and they 're more likely to hit the United States . `` We may be in an upswing , '' he said , `` possibly back to the pattern of the '40s , '50s and '60s when we had a tremendous number of landfall hurricanes . '' Max Mayfield , hurricane specialist at the National Weather Service in Miami , said experts do n't known enough yet about hurricanes to tell if this is just a peak in activity , or a return to the 50s and 60s . `` Now we can see past the Antilles out into the Atlantic , and over toward Hawaii on the west , '' said forecaster Hal Gerrish . `` We 'd like to be able to see all the way to Africa , '' which is where Atlantic hurricanes develop , he said . The need for improved tracking systems is important because more and more people are moving to coastal locations likely to be affected by storms . `` I spoke to about 5,000 people on the west coast of Florida , '' Sheets said . `` Ninety-plus percent of them were from the Midwest or Northeast and had just come to Florida . They really have very little concept of what a hurricane is . '' During the average Atlantic hurricane season , which stretches from June through the end of November , six tropical storms will grow into hurricanes , with heavy rains and winds of 74 mph . Donna , in 1960 , struck the Florida Keys at Marathon , then raked across Naples and Fort Myers before weakening inland . Last season , 505 people died in Atlantic hurricanes , including Gilbert and Joan . Gilbert killed more than 300 people and did heavy damage in Mexico , Jamaica , Haiti and the Dominican Republic as it blasted across the the western Caribbean and part of the Gulf of Mexico _ including the Florida Keys , the Florida Straits and Cuba . Joan hovered off the coast of Central America for days before howling in with top winds of 135 mph . The storm caused mudslides , floods and other damage in Nicaragua , Costa Rica , Colombia and Panama .
extractive_keyphrases: atlantic hurricane season coastal populations hurricane reconnaissance flights air force forecasters weather satellite hurricane hunters hurricane activity