2024 Atlantic hurricane season begins
Ready or not, the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is here. NOAA put out a forecast with the highest number of storms ever for its May predictions.
Atlantic hurricane season officially starts June 1 and runs through Nov. 30. The National Hurricane Center picked this six-month period because it accounts for about 97% of all Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes, according to NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division.
April actually welcomed the first tropical disturbance. While an early disturbance does not signal an extremely active hurricane season, expert forecasts do. NOAA’s forecast shows a well-above-average season with 17-25 named storms, 8-13 hurricanes and 4-7 major hurricanes. Other forecasters have been in agreement.
“The two reasons for an aggressive forecast are: 1. The extremely warm tropical Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, and 2. The expectation that a La Niña will develop in the Pacific by the heart of the hurricane season,” wrote FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross. “A La Niña most often produces an upper-level wind regime over the Atlantic that is relatively conducive to storm development.”
Norcross said that the Atlantic water temperature and the state of El Nino/La Nina explain 70-80% of the tropical activity during the season.
“What’s interesting here is that there are 21 names on the list. Not every letter from the alphabet has a name that corresponds with it. So it’s 21,” said FOX Weather Meteorologist Ian Oliver. “But the consensus among all the agencies that put out a hurricane forecast is 24 storms. So we might see the debut of that new supplemental list this year.”
Until 2021, forecasters used Greek letters to name excess storms. That only happened twice. In 2021, the World Meteorological Organization, which maintains the list of names used during hurricane season, developed a list of overflow names.
Alberto will be the first tropical storm or hurricane name during the 2024 season. If we get through William, the supplemental list of names will be used, and it starts with Adria.
Article Written by Fox Weather https://www.foxweather.com/extreme-weather/2024-atlantic-hurricane-season-begins
