It’s a fact of life for many meteorologists on the East and Gulf Coasts: the blood pressure goes up just a little bit every year when the calendar flips to June 1.
It’s the first day of the Atlantic hurricane season (for now) and it kicks off six months of tracking the tropics for damaging storms.
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I say “for now” because there has been momentum within the meteorological community to change the start of the season to May 15.
The longest-lived tropical cyclones actually begin as waves of energy over Africa. As the energy moves west over the Atlantic Ocean, it feeds on the warm tropical waters and strengthens into a large low pressure system.
If the system is free from wind shear (rotation of the wind with height in the atmosphere) and African dust and has enough of its warm water source, it strengthens further into a tropical storm and/or hurricane.
The primary way these storms weaken? Interaction with land, which is typically not good news for inhabitants of coastal communities. Colder ocean waters and the presence of wind shear can also be factors in weakening hurricanes.
This hurricane season is forecast to be an above-average one, just like 2020. We are hoping it’s not QUITE as active as last year, which was a record-breaker for the Atlantic basin.
Three major tropical forecast organizations, Colorado State University (CSU), NC State University (NCSU) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are predicting more storms than the average of 14 named storms and seven hurricanes (three of which becoming major storms).
We have already burned one name on this year’s tropical cyclone list: Ana, which formed back in May. That makes seven consecutive years with a “preseason” storm.
Other names that could potentially be used this year: Claudette, Fred, Ida, Larry, etc.
If the 2021 season exceeds its forecast and all of the names are used like 2020, you won’t hear about Tropical Storm Alpha or Hurricane Eta this year.
That’s because the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ended the use of Greek names to refer to tropical cyclones.
All seasons in the present and future will use a supplemental name list, starting after the 21st named storm of each season.
A season would have to be a good deal above-average to reach the supplemental list, which includes names like Adria, Deshawn, Heath and Makayla.
The season officially runs until November 30, however, it’s not out of the question to get a late-season storm in December.
Look for coverage of all tropical storms and hurricanes on 10 News, as well as on our social media pages and WSLS.com.