We’re in the back half of Atlantic hurricane season for sure, but that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods quite yet. A pair of disturbances run the risk of becoming named tropical storms, with at least one system set to potentially materialize in the Caribbean and eventually pose a threat to land.
The National Hurricane Center is monitoring two tropical waves — one northeast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and the other a few hundred miles east of the Windward Islands. The former could gradually develop over the next several days, but the latter can barely even be spotted on weather maps yet. It’s the one that could become a concern for Central America.
By the books, hurricane season in the Atlantic runs until Nov. 30, though the atmosphere ultimately does whatever it likes. Leading up to the 2022 season, experts across the board predicted an unusually active season and were surprised when August passed without a single named storm forming for the first time in 25 years. Since then, eight named storms have formed, bringing the season’s total to 11 so far. Five storms became hurricanes, including Ian, a Category 4 that slammed into southwest Florida on Sept. 28. It was one of two Category 4 storms this season, the other being Fiona, which attained that strength west of Bermuda before metastasizing into a record-breaking nontropical storm and wreaking havoc in Atlantic Canada.