The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will be "above normal", spawning six to 10 hurricanes of which around half could become major, the U.S. government’s weather agency forecast on Thursday. However, as the 2010 season showed -- it was very active but the U.S. coastline escaped a hit -- a high frequency of storms does not always translate into more destructive landfalls. In its first forecast for the season that begins on June 1, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) anticipated 12 to 18 named storms, a somewhat lower level of activity than the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season.