HERE WE GO

5/17/2022 (Permalink)

Storm

Weeks before the Atlantic hurricane season officially starts, the National Hurricane Center in Miami is tracking its first tropical wave of 2022 off the coast of Africa — are you ready?

An eastern Atlantic tropical wave was moving westward about 15 mph, according to a Monday morning NHC report: "The Hovmoller diagram satellite imagery sequence for the past 5 days reveals that this wave has a good track history. The latest satellite imagery shows an area of numerous moderate to isolated strong convection east of the wave. Tropical wave guidance has it moving westward over the next 24-48 hours, passing well to the south of the Cabo Verde Islands."

Name game: Will the trend of hurricane season unofficially starting in May continue?

As hurricane season approaches, experts say to beware of more rapidly intensifying storms

Bookmark this: Here's a free database to track the storms during hurricane season

Hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30. If a tropical storm forms this month, the first name on the list is Alex.

A storm forming before the season starts isn't uncommon. Since 2015, there has been a named storm in May every year, beginning with Tropical Storm Ana. Because of this trend, there has been increasing discussions among weather experts about moving the official start of hurricane season up to May 15.

Here's a recap of past seasons that started before June 1, in some cases, to the extreme:

• On May 8, 2015, Tropical Storm Ana formed, followed by Tropical Storm Bill on June 16th.
• On Jan. 12, 2016, Subtropical Storm Alex formed and eventually strengthened to become Hurricane Alex. Months passed before Tropical Storm Bonnie formed May 27, again days before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Storm Colin formed June 5 of that year.

Did you know? 2021 hurricane season used up its name list for only the 3rd time in history

Real-time radar loop: See a satellite loop for Eastern Atlantic tropical storm activity

• On April 19, 2017, Tropical Storm Arlene formed. Storm activity was "quiet" until Tropical Storm Bret formed June 19, followed by Tropical Storm Cindy a day later.
• On May 25, 2018, Tropical Storm Alberto formed the weekend of Memorial Day, which was May 28 that year. That summer, hurricane season didn't see another storm until Hurricane Beryl formed July 4 and Hurricane Chris on July 6.

• On May 20, 2019, Subtropical Storm Andrea formed. Hurricane Barry formed months later on July 11. 
• On May 16, 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, Tropical Storm Arthur formed. Tropical Storm Bertha also formed before the season started, on May 27, two days after Memorial Day that year. Tropical Storm Cristobal formed June 1.
• Like in 2015, Tropical Storm Ana formed May 22, 2021, followed by Tropical Storm Bill on June 14. It is not uncommon for the National Hurricane Center to reuse storm names. If a storm has devastating impacts, names will be retired from future use. That happened with Katrina, Matthew and Floyd, to name a few.