In the weather world June 1st is a big day. It’s not only the first day of meteorological Summer but also the start of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.
Although the season officially starts on June 1st, Mother Nature could not wait! We have already had 2 named storms, Arthur and Bertha in late May. Now, there is another system organizing in the western Gulf of Mexico that will likely be named in the coming days.
The National Hurricane Center is giving this disturbance over the Yucatan Peninsula an 80% of the development in the next 2 days.
As for the hurricane forecast for the rest of the season, here’s what the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is forecasting. They are predicting between 13-19 named storms, 6-10 of the named storms becoming hurricanes and 3-6 major hurricanes.
A major hurricane is defined as hurricane classified as a Category 3 or higher. On the Saffir-Simpson scale, a Category 3 hurricane can produce sustained winds between 111-129 mph and cause devastating wind damage to most structures.
So far, it’s looking like it’s going to be an active season. I’m pretty confident we will be hearing about tropical storm or hurricane Cristobal by the end of the week. The latest run of the GFS model puts a tropical system in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico by Saturday.
Living in Wisconsin we usually don’t have to worry about direct impacts from any tropical systems but we can sometimes get the remnants of storms and they can sometimes ruin travel plans during this time of the year. The best thing to do is always be prepared and make sure that any friends or family that live in coastal locations especially- are paying attention when storms threaten.
If you’re keeping with the names for this 2020 season, here you go.
I look forward to giving more updates on this season.
Stay Safe Everyone!
Elissia
