Tropical Storm Don forms in Atlantic

Most intensity models keep Emily at tropical storm strength by Saturday. Forecast odds of the wave becoming a full blown tropical system are low, about 30 percent in the next week.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles (55 km) from the center. So, naturally, a Twitter storm bubbled up jokes connecting President Donald Trump to the weather system. And the 2004 and 2005 seasons saw a whole slew of names retired from the list including, Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma.

The National Hurricane Center is keeping a close eye on two different disturbances in the Atlantic.

There’s a long established global system to name storms. In 2005, Hurricane Dennis raked much of the Florida panhandle and was retired along with Katrina, Rita, Stan, and Wilma in that record year. Mayfield said Don, like other names, wasn’t chosen about anyone in specific. Since Don is weak, the name is unlikely to be retired.

AIRS infrared data gathered on July 18 at 1:23 a.m. EDT (0523 UTC) showed the storm to be compact with a small area of strong thunderstorms around the center.

Tropical storm watches have been posted for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

It’s been 4,284 days (nearly 12 years) since the last major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) made landfall on the mainland USA – the longest period of time ever between major hurricane hits.

I wonder if Russian Federation has anything to do with this storm. Hurricane Bill caused some flooding and power outages in Bermuda while Bill Clinton was in the Oval Office in 1997.

“The paths of numerous storms have been farther south this year than in other years, and that’s in general bad news for us”, Lushine said. Also, eastern Pacific storms are pulled from a separate list than Atlantic storms.