Quiet Atlantic hurricane season so far
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An area of low pressure off the Carolina coast is the only system in the Atlantic today.
You can probably thanks El Nino for this one.
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The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season is starting off on a very slow note. So far only one tropical system has reached the depression stage. There hasn't even been a named storm so far. The satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean above shows a clear lack of systems capable of developing into tropical cyclones today. The average date for the first named storm in the tropical Atlantic is July 10th.
The forecast are calling for a near average season this year. That would be about 10 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 major hurricanes. Official forecasts from the National Hurricane Center and Colorado State University are close to those numbers.
The development of El Nino in the tropical Pacific is likely having an impact on creating an unfavorable environment for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic this year. Even with lower numbers, it only takes one or two systems to make for a bad hurricane season in the U.S. so we'll need to remain watchful as we head towards peak hurricane activity in August and September.
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