Sept 4 (Reuters) - A noted hurricane research team at Colorado State University on Tuesday trimmed to seven from eight its forecast for the number of hurricanes expected during the 2007 Atlantic storm season. There have already been two.

The CSU forecasting team maintained its prediction for 15 named tropical storms, however, and said four of the season's hurricanes would be classified as "major" with winds exceeding 110 mph (177 kph).

Hurricane Felix, which tore into Central America's Caribbean coastline on Tuesday, was the second top-ranked Category Five hurricane of the current season after last month's Hurricane Dean.

The following are the latest predictions for 2007: --------------------------------------------------------------

Tropical Storms Hurricanes Major Hurricanes -------------------------------------------------------------- CSU 15 (unchanged) 7 (prev 8) 4 (unchanged) NOAA 13-16 (prev 13-17) 7-9 (prev 7-10) 3-5 (unchanged) TSR 14.7 (unchanged) 7.8 (prev 7.9) 3.5 (unchanged) WSI 14 (prev 15) 6 (prev 8) 3 (prev 4) WRC 7 4 2 UK Met 10 - - -------------------------------------------------------------- *NOAA forecast revised Aug. 9. *CSU (Colorado State University team led by Phil Klotzbach) forecast revised Sept. 4. Next update expected Oct. 2. *TSR (London-based Tropical Storm Risk) forecast revised Aug. 6. *WSI Corp. forecast revised July 24. *WRC (Houston-based Weather Research Center) issues just one seasonal outlook based on solar cycles. *The UK Met Office, a newcomer to the field of hurricane season forecasting, on June 19 predicted 10 storms between July and November 2007. It did not predict intensities.It did not predict intensities.

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