And two of his friends!
What started as a slow season has suddenly picked up wind, pardon the pun. Behind Earl we have Fiona and Gaston, both named. Both tropical storms.
While I think that we’ll be alright here in North Carolina, it does seem that the Hurricane season has picked up some.
Last I left us, we had seen 2 hurricanes and 5 named storms. However, Earl was predicted to hit hurricane status; and he has.
We currently sit at:
- Alex – hurricane
- Bonnie – tropical storm
- Colin – tropical storm
- Danielle – major hurricane
- Earl – major hurricane
- Fiona – tropical storm
That is 6 named storms with 3 hurricanes. Extrapolating, we would expect to see 12 and 6. By now, we should have expected to see 7-10 named storms with 4-6 hurricanes. Of which, 2-3 could become major hurricanes.
And what does the National Hurricane Center say?
SO FAR THIS SEASON…OVERALL TROPICAL CYCLONE ACTIVITY TO DATE IS
ABOUT 50 PERCENT ABOVE THE LONG-TERM MEAN.
Yikes! We may be in for a doozy. But they said that already.