Summer brings warm weather, droves of tourists and the return of cottagers to the island. But as no good deed goes unpunished, it is also the start of the hurricane season.

In a press release generated from a conference earlier this week in Washington, D.C., hurricane experts predicted that the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season probably will have normal levels of activity, which is expected to bring fewer storms than last year.

Last year's season was predicted to be an "above average" hurricane season with 11 or more storms and with seven or more to form named storms. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, last year there were 14 named storms, eight of which became hurricanes.

Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, and NOAA is warning New England residents not be complacent. The director of the NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami said that hurricane-spawned disasters occur even in years with normal or below-normal activity. For example, Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, was the costliest hurricane on record but it came during a season of below-normal hurricane activity.

NOAA officials note that the best source of weather information for coastal locales, including Block Island, is NOAA weather radio or its website, www.nws.noaa.gov.