A new tropical storm system could heat up the Atlantic this week amid a remarkably quiet hurricane season for the U.S.
Forecasters are watching a fast-moving disturbance that’s churning across the central tropical Atlantic and is expected to reach the northern Leeward Islands later this week.
A tropical depression, the precursor to a tropical storm, is likely to form within the next few days, according to the National Hurricane Center. Models show the storm tracking north toward the U.S., although many options for its path remain possible this early.
“Interests in the northern Leeward Islands should monitor the progress of this system,” the center advised.
The system follows a couple of weeks of increased activity in the Atlantic, with major hurricanes Imelda and Humberto forming over the past few weeks.
Humberto brought dangerous rip currents and swells to the East Coast and its outer bands swept across Bermuda at the end of last month.
Imelda formed just days later, striking Cuba as a tropical storm and leading to the deaths of two people last week. After passing over Cuba and strengthening into a Category 2 hurricane, it side-swiped Bermuda, causing widespread power outages and downing trees.
Although the hurricanes did not hit the U.S. directly, churning ocean waters sent multiple North Carolina homes tumbling into the surf.
Imelda and Humberto were only separated by 500 miles, leading the storms to become intertwined and yanking Imelda away from the East Coast in a phenomenon known as the Fujiwhara Effect.
“It’s a very rare phenomenon overall in the Atlantic basin,” AccuWeather’s Alex DaSilva told The Associated Press.
Several storms this year have veered away from the states this hurricane season. Stronger and taller storms are often pulled away by high-up winds, WRAL meteorologist Chris Michaels explained.
It’s happened with Andrea, Chantal, Dexter, Fernand and Erin.
“Erin was a major hurricane that stayed 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina in August. The Southeast was spared from major flooding from Hurricane Imelda in September, thanks in part to the rare Fujiwhara Effect,” DaSilva noted in a statement shared with The Independent.
The last time there were no hurricane landfalls in the U.S. through the month of September was in 2015, AccuWeather noted.
The only named storm to make landfall in the U.S. so far this year was Tropical Storm Chantal, which battered the Carolinas in July, costing between $4-6 billion in damage and economic loss.
But, there’s still time for major impacts – the Atlantic hurricane season runs through November 30.
Source: independent.co.uk