By KENNETH CHANG, New York Times News Service

This year’s hurricane season was forecast to be more active than average, and so far, it has met expectations.

Conditions of the equatorial Atlantic have been more conducive for the formation of large storms, and winds are pushing them toward the United States instead of westward into Central America or deflecting them to the northeast, away from land, meteorologists say.

For Hurricane Gustav, quickly closing on Louisiana, the steering winds have come from a high-pressure ridge that runs from near the Bahamas and across Florida.

Still in the Atlantic is Tropical Storm Hanna, and its path also depends on the same high-pressure ridge that has steered Hurricane Gustav. On Friday, at least one forecast saw the ridge nudging Hanna westward into the Gulf of Mexico and possibly making it a second hurricane to hit Louisiana in a week, though that now seems less likely.

Hurricane Gustav’s trajectory has curved around this high-pressure mass of air, which turned out stronger than originally forecast. That, in turn, accelerated the hurricane’s pace over the last couple of days so that landfall will come on Monday instead of Tuesday, unless the storm stalls unexpectedly.

Still, Brian McNoldy, a research associate at Colorado State University’s department of atmospheric science who writes an e-mail newsletter describing the progress of tropical storms in the Atlantic, called the season so far “above average but not crazy.”

“The coming month looks like it could be quite active,” he added.

That follows last year when a forecast of an active hurricane season was followed by an average season, with no major hurricanes hitting the United States. “Last year was a difficult year,” said Todd Kimberlain, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “We’re still trying to understand why we failed.”

So far, the hurricane center has had a firm grip on Hurricane Gustav’s path. Even as the speed of the hurricane varied, slowing to a crawl over Jamaica last week, then quickening over the weekend, its path — as forecast by the hurricane center — always crossed over the Louisiana coast not far from New Orleans.

Yet while the storm’s track has followed predictions, its winds have not. To some surprise, the storm strengthened quickly from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon, becoming a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, with sustained winds of at least 131 mph, before it hit Cuba. It weakened back to Category 3, with winds between 111 mph and 130 mph, after reaching land.

After passing over Cuba, the storm passed over very warm water, which usually fuels the strength of hurricanes. But its winds were blowing at different speeds at different altitudes, which tends to tear a storm apart. So while it remained a potent Category 3 hurricane, it did not strengthen back into a Category 4.

Kimberlain said forecasters expected the hurricane to be a Category 3 when it reached Louisiana. Strengthening to a Category 4 was still possible, he said, but it was highly unlikely that Gustav would reach Category 5, the most severe on the scale.

In an update on Sunday afternoon, McNoldy wrote, “It’s currently looking ragged on satellite, lacking a clear eye, showing signs of southerly vertical shear, and has dry air wrapping around west and south of it.”

As for Tropical Storm Hanna, more recent forecasts have the high-pressure ridge weakening and the storm headed to the northwest with possible landfall in Georgia or South Carolina next weekend.

But conditions like warm waters and low atmospheric pressure in the Atlantic may well nurture more storms in the coming weeks.

Inside the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday, no one needed to be told that after three years of cramming, test time had finally come.

Representatives of more than a dozen federal agencies tried to ensure that everyone knew what part they had to play as Hurricane Gustav churned toward the Gulf Coast.

The evidence was visible both in the command center activated in Washington and on the ground across the Gulf Coast. The Coast Guard, Defense Department, National Guard and FEMA all have far more personnel, equipment and emergency supplies in the region than they did three years ago before the hurricane, officials said.

FEMA, for example, had 18 search-and-rescue teams ready to go, compared with seven before Katrina landed. It had 240 truckloads of water and packaged meals and 400 more truckloads of blankets, cots and tarps, far more than three years ago.

The Defense Department was coordinating the airlift of over 1,000 patients from Gulf Coast hospitals and nursing homes.

The Coast Guard had about 500 extra personnel assigned to the response, said Vice Adm. Bob Papp, ready to operate 31 helicopters brought to the region, and two squads with small rescue boats, among other equipment.

“We have drilled, we have learned lessons,” Papp said. Then, echoing the remarks of others, he added: “I am a sailor, and I have been dealing with weather all my life. So I know there will always be a surprise.”

Complications were still cropping up, including word from several hospitals and nursing homes that their own evacuation plans had fallen through. But federal officials said they found the planes and other equipment necessary to handle the load.