Tarheel Red

Remember, the latest prediction is:

The updated forecast calls for 14 to 20 named tropical storms.

And

Eight to 12 storms could become hurricanes, and four to six of those hurricanes could become major storms, blowing winds of 111 mph or more, forecasters said.

With that said, today’s development:

Tropical Storm Earl has formed in the open Atlantic Ocean, but the system is far from land.

Earl has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and is expected to become a hurricane by Friday.

That means we have:

• 5 Named Storms
• 2 Hurricanes

By the end of August we should see:

• 7-10 Named storms
• 4-6 hurricanes

That means in the next 5 days we would need to see:

• 2-5 Named storms
• 2-4 hurricanes

I expect zero new named storms with 1 new hurricane; Earl.

We now have the fourth named storm of the 2010 season:

MIAMI – Tropical Storm Danielle has formed in the Atlantic, but the system is still far from land.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday that Danielle had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and the storm is expected to strengthen over the next couple of days.

The National Hurricane Center recently revised their forecast to:

14 to 20 named tropical storms

The season runs from June through November; 6 months.  We are nearly finished with August; half way.  That means we should have seen 7-10 by now.  We’re at 4.

Hurricanes?

Eight to 12 storms could become hurricanes…

So far we have zero, we should be near 4-6 by now.

Stay tuned…