Tropics Now Eerily Quiet With Peak Of Season Looming
Last week forecasters with the National Hurricane Center were watching two developing storm systems in the tropical Atlantic Basin. That was last week, this is this week and those two systems which had the potential to become tropical cyclones have dissipated.
The system that had forecasters most concerned was the one that was located over the Bahamas and near the east coast of Florida. That system turned out to be nothing more than a disorganized area of showers and thunderstorms. Forecasters with the Hurricane Center ceased monitoring it over the weekend.
The second system was one that formed near the Cape Verde Islands. This is significant because this time of year that part of the ocean is where many tropical systems are born as low-pressure systems roll off the African continent and spin up into cyclones over the warm tropical waters.
That system at one time had a 70% probability of becoming a tropical cyclone but changes in atmospheric conditions and upper-level wind speeds managed to rip that system apart before it had the chance to develop.
That puts us now in a cautiously optimistic posture as the peak of the Hurricane Season is looming in a little over a month. Forecasters with the Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University are scheduled to release a mid-season forecast either today or later this week. We'll see how new data will affect our outlook for the rest of the tropical season.