The Hurricane Season Is Suddenly Looking More Active
A week ago, forecasters were discussing a significant lull at the height of what was supposed to be a very active hurricane season.On Wednesday, with Francine barreling toward the Gulf Coast, and several other potential storms on the horizon, the Atlantic was looking increasingly more active.As Francine moved toward landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday, forecasters were already eyeing the next storm off the coast of Africa, which could soon become the seventh named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
(If it does, it will be called Tropical Storm Gordon).There are also three other areas of interest, including one far off the coast of South Carolina, that have at least some possibility of becoming tropical storms over the next week.(Meteorologists name a tropical storm when its sustained wind speeds reach 39 miles per hour, and a storm becomes a hurricane when winds reach 74 m.p.h.)The system most likely to form into a storm is currently off the west coast of Africa and being called Tropical Depression 7.
Over the next 24 hours, it could reach tropical storm intensity, with winds 39 miles per hour or higher, and would likely be called Gordon if nothing forms before it.This potential named storm is expected to move west over the ocean the next several days, at which point it could slow down, potentially move north and northeast or continue to the west.Another, weaker storm system a few hundred miles off the southeastern coast of the United States may develop on Friday.
There is at least some chance this disturbed weather could develop into a tropical storm this weekend or early next week as the system drifts to the north or northwest.There are a couple of other areas that forecasters are monitoring east of the Caribbean Islands.Although systems could form there, the weather conditions in the region are a little less conducive to tropical storm formations.Either way, the current satellite picture looks slightly more like the very active season forecasters warned a...