Local meteorologist Mark Guishard has been highlighted in South Carolina in advance of the 2016 hurricane season.

Mr Guishard, the programme manager for Bermuda's Risk Prevention Initiative at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, has been featured in an article in the South Carolina-based Post and Courier.

In the article, he challenges the suggestion of a “hurricane drought” in recent years, noting Bermuda's encounters with Hurricane Fay, Hurricane Gonzalo and Hurricane Joaquin. While he said the East and Gulf coasts of the United States had not experienced a Category 3 hurricane for ten years, he noted that Hurricane Ike landed in Texas with wind speeds just 1mph below the Category 3 threshold.

And he warned that even a storm below Category 3 could have a devastating impact.

The American-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast a “near-average” Atlantic hurricane season in advance of the start of the season on Wednesday, however, two named storms have already been recorded this year.