It’s just that very few storms have emerged. And the Atlantic surface has been fairly hot for most of the year, with temperatures that are more than high enough to fuel storm development. If anything, the symptoms still point toward a busier season: The world is experiencing a La Niña climate pattern, wherein cold Pacific Ocean temperatures reduce wind shear in the Atlantic, which should make it easier for storms to grow. Experts are still trying to figure out what’s causing the reprieve. The dearth of tropical storm formation has come as a surprise to many meteorologists, especially given that every major hurricane model predicted an eventful season this year. “If you just showed me, ‘here’s what the winds look like,’ I would have said we should have had a couple of hurricanes, probably at least one major hurricane - conditions are fairly conducive, and yet, nothing is going.” “It’s super weird,” said Phil Klotzbach, a senior research scientist at Colorado State University, one of the leading hurricane forecasting institutions. With the traditional peak of hurricane season coming up on September 10, it’s looking more and more probable that the year will finish well below average. Tropical storm activity overall is just around 10 percent of its average so far this year, and if the trend continues 2022 will end up being the fourth quietest year in the last century. Just one of them, Alex, caused any noticeable effects on land, leading to a day of flash flooding in Miami, Florida. Although meteorologists are tracking a few more storm systems that may develop over the coming weeks, none is expected to present an imminent threat to residents of the Caribbean or American mainland.īefore Danielle and Earl, just three tropical storms had formed in the Atlantic this year, all of them in June. So far, however, there have been no major hurricanes like those that have devastated the U.S. This summer has seen historic floods, brutal heat waves, and rampaging wildfires strike the United States. Hurricanes Danielle and Earl, which both developed hurricane-force winds over the past weekend, are now spinning northward through the ocean, where they are expected to dissolve in cold water before making direct landfall.ĭespite this recent flurry of activity, this year’s Atlantic hurricane season is still one of the quietest on record - and it seems likely to stay that way. After months of near-total tranquility, the Atlantic Ocean has finally seen its first two hurricanes of the 2022 season.
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