As Tropical Storm Arthur moves up the U.S. coastline, forecasters worry that it is just the first domino to fall in a hurricane season that has the potential to mirror the worst ever.
Arthur became the first named storm of 2020 when it reached tropical storm status over the weekend. As of 5 a.m. New York time, it was forecast to pass close to or just over North Carolina’s Outer Banks with 45 mile-per-hour winds and as much as three inches of rain. The storm will then turn eastward into the Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center
This is the sixth year in a row that a named storm has preceded the formal June 1 start of the hurricane season, said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist with DTN, which provides weather for energy, agriculture and industry. While early storms boost a season’s overall numbers, they don’t indicate the ferocity of what will happen in the deep Atlantic during the height of the season.
This year, scientists see ominous clues with conditions in place similar to 2005, when a record 28 storms clawed across the Atlantic, including Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans, killing 1,800.
«All the puzzle pieces are in place, no matter how I slice and dice it,» Jim Rouiller, the lead meteorologist at the Energy Weather Group, said by telephone. «It gives me higher than normal confidence this year will mimic a hyperactive hurricane season, and that is what 2005 was.»
Exceptionally warm waters in the Atlantic have the potential to rev up the 2020 hurricane season. While 2020 might not produce as many storms, the summer and fall could have the feel of that record-breaking year, Rouiller said.
There are other clues scientists are watching closely as well. An El Nino forms there when a broad band of warm water along the equator raises atmospheric temperatures globally, causing rain in some…
As Tropical Storm Arthur moves up the U. S. coastline, forecasters worry that it is just the first domino to fall in a hurricane season that has the potential to mirror the worst ever.
Arthur became the first named storm of 2020 when it reached tropical storm status over the weekend. As of 5 a.m. New York time, it was forecast to pass close to or just over North Carolina’s Outer Banks with 45 mile-per-hour winds and as much as three inches of rain. The storm will then turn eastward into the Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center.
