Besides Dorian, forecasters are currently watching three other disturbances in the Atlantic.
Think of a disturbance as the
first stage of a potential hurricane — it’s a
weather system that usually includes a collection of clouds and precipitation. A disturbance can turn into a depression, a tropical storm or a hurricane, depending on how much its wind speed increases.
A disturbance off the west coast of Africa has a 20 percent chance of forming into a cyclone over the next 48 hours, NOAA forecasters predict. Over the next five days, that likelihood increases to 70 percent.
There’s also another disturbance closer the Caribbean. That one has only a 10 percent chance of forming into a cyclone in the next two days, and the chances that it will form even later on remain low.
And that’s just in the next few days.
Forecasters from NOAA
predicted in August that there’s a 45 percent chance hurricane activity for the rest of the season would be above normal. The chances that the season will turn out to be near normal are 35 percent, they said, while the likelihood that activity will be below normal is 20 percent.
According to NOAA, the Atlantic hurricane season produces 12 named storms on average. A storm gets a name when it becomes a tropical storm, with sustained winds of 39 mph or greater.
Six of those named storms typically become hurricanes, with wind speeds of 74 mph or more. About three become major hurricanes, with wind speeds of 111 mph or greater.
This season, NOAA predicted that there would be 10 to 17 named storms and that five to nine of them would become hurricanes.
As things stand now, there have been seven named storms: Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand and Gabrielle. Two of them, Barry and Dorian, strengthened into hurricanes.
Dorian has been the only major hurricane so far, slamming into the Bahamas with sustained winds of 185 mph and gusts reaching 200 mph.
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