Janice R. Andrews
According to its most recent report, which came out Wednesday, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) is keeping an eye on two storms in the Atlantic Ocean. Weather forecasters are busy keeping an eye on what’s happening in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as storm season continues.
Area of low pressure southeast of Bermuda
A low-pressure area a few hundred miles southeast of Bermuda is causing a small area of wild rains and thunderstorms in the western Atlantic. According to the NHC, however, this storm is not likely to get any worse because of the dry air and strong upper-level winds. The next few days probably won’t see much more progress on this system because of these bad conditions.
The NHC has said that there is a “nearly 0% chance” that this problem will get worse over the next seven days. In other words, it’s not likely to turn into a tropical depression or a named storm.
There is a tropical wave in the central Atlantic.
The NHC is also keeping an eye on a group of scattered storms linked to a tropical wave in the central Tropical Atlantic. At the moment, this storm is going from west to west-northwest at 10 to 15 mph. As the storm moves across the ocean, things may move more slowly this weekend and into the beginning of next week.
The NHC says that this disturbance has a 20% chance of becoming a named storm or tropical depression in the next seven days. It would be called Francine if it got stronger and became a named storm, as long as no other storms formed first.
The Atlantic hurricane season is getting stronger.
While we are still in September, meteorologists think that the Atlantic storm season will become busier. September has always been one of the busiest months for storms in the Atlantic, and experts think that will continue this year.
Alex DaSilva, a hurricane expert at AccuWeather, said that the dry, dusty air from Africa that has been stopping storms from forming will likely go away. DaSilva said, “The dust will settle, and the Atlantic will feel alive again.” He also said that the water temperature in many places of the ocean is warm enough to help tropical storms and hurricanes form and get stronger.
In the Gulf of Mexico, which is closer to the U.S., water temperatures are at all-time highs, according to DaSilva. “If something starts to happen in the Gulf, it could spread very quickly.” “People need to pay attention, because storms can change and get stronger very quickly,” he said.
Also, computer models show that there might be more action in the Atlantic in September. Yale Climate Connections meteorologists Jeff Masters and Bob Henson said, “Long-range models are becoming increasingly confident that the deep Atlantic tropics will soon spawn a system worth tracking, and there’s plenty of reason to believe that a busy September and/or October lie ahead.”
A Sudden Drop in the Atlantic
This week, there have been surprisingly few storms in the Atlantic, even though there was a chance that activity would pick up. This quiet comes as a bit of a surprise to experts, especially since this time of year usually has a lot of storms.
Phil Klotzbach, a researcher at Colorado State University, told USA TODAY, “It is quiet out there.” “I certainly wasn’t expecting this when we put out our most recent seasonal forecast!” Klotzbach says that the last time there were no named storms in the Atlantic from August 21 to September 2 was in 1997.
Busy hurricane season in the Pacific
While it hasn’t been very busy in the Atlantic, storm season has been busier in the Pacific. Hawaii residents are still dealing with the effects of Tropical Storm Hone, which hit parts of the Big Island with heavy rain and winds. While they are getting better, they are also getting ready for what Tropical Storm Gilma or its leftovers might do.
As of now, there are no land alerts for Gilma because it is still in the open ocean, but forecasts say that heavy rain could hit parts of the Hawaiian Islands as early as Friday and last all the way through Saturday.
Tropical Storm Hector is also moving around in the Pacific, but it will likely weaken into a leftover low by Thursday. Honolulu’s National Weather Service says that the remnants of Hurricane Hector might pass over Hawaii over the weekend, but “no significant impacts are expected from remnants of Hector at this time.”
Just as storm season is about to start, both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have their own problems. The Atlantic is strangely still, but the Pacific is having a lot of storms. As the season goes on, people who live in places that are more likely to be affected should stay educated and ready, as more changes are likely to happen soon.
