# 5511
. . . and frankly, not very likely to develop, but interesting nonetheless. The first INVEST of the year has popped up north of Puerto Rico, six weeks before the official start of the 2011 Atlantic Tropical Season.
Here is this morning’s tropical weather outlook from The National Hurricane Center in Miami.
While rare, systems like this have formed in the Atlantic in every month of the year except January (note: There were 2 tropical systems that formed in December and hung around into January).
In 2003, the only known tropical storm – Ana – to form in April appeared briefly between April 20th – April 24th, reaching wind speeds of 60 MPH.
Track of T.S. Ana 2003 – wikipedia
On the 21st of April, 1992 an unnamed sub-tropical storm formed in roughly the same area. It dissipated three days later.
While early season activity probably doesn’t tell us much about the season ahead, it does serve as a reminder that the time to prepare for this year’s hurricane season is now.
Dr. William Gray’s team at the University of Colorado recently issued their long-range hurricane outlook, and they are calling for an above average season; 16 named storms and 9 hurricanes.
Extended Range Forecast of Atlantic Seasonal Hurricane Activity and Landfall Strike Probability for 2011 - PDF Format
Philip J. Klotzbach and William M. Gray
6 April 2011
Next month we’ll spend a good deal of time on hurricane preparedness during Hurricane Preparedness Week : May 22nd through May 28th.
