Tropical Storm Henri Forms in the Atlantic

An already active day in Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Henri formed on Monday off the East Coast of the United States and Tropical Storm Fredlanded in the Florida Panhandle in the afternoon and Tropical Depression GraceIt landed in Haiti, complicating search and rescue efforts. strong earthquake He killed hundreds of people on Saturday morning.

The National Hurricane Center said just before 5 p.m. Henri was upgraded from a tropical depression to a tropical storm.

The storm was about 145 miles southeast of Bermuda. tropical storm watch was in effect. It was moving south-southwest at seven miles per hour with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, according to the center, which says the storm will gain strength over the next few days.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said that while it’s not unusual to have several active weather systems simultaneously during hurricane season, it is unusual to have three tropical storm watches or warnings for land areas at the same time.

“It’s a busy period here,” Michael Brennan, branch chief of the center’s hurricane specialist unit, said on Monday.

Although Henri is a long way from the East Coast, the center warned it could produce dangerous currents.

Dr. “The weather can be really nice where they are, but there can be dangerous surf conditions,” Brennan said.

The links between hurricanes and climate change are becoming more apparent. A warming planet can expect to see stronger hurricanes and a higher incidence of the strongest storms over time – but the overall storm count may decrease because factors such as stronger wind shear can prevent weaker storms from forming.

Hurricanes also get wetter due to more water vapor in the warmer atmosphere; scientists have suggested storms like Hurricane Harvey in 2017 produced far more rain than it would have had without human effects on the climate.. Also, rising sea levels are contributing to higher storm surge, the most destructive element of tropical cyclones.

A big United Nations climate report The report, released in August, warned that nations are delaying curbing fossil fuel emissions so long that they can no longer prevent global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years, leading to more frequent life-threatening heat waves and severe droughts. Tropical cyclones have likely become more intense over the past 40 years, a change that cannot be explained by natural variability alone, according to the report.

mother It became the first named storm of the season on May 23, making it the seventh consecutive year of a named storm to develop in the Atlantic before the official start of the season on June 1.

In May, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 13 to 20 named storms This year, there will be six to 10 hurricanes and three to five major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher in the Atlantic. In a mid-season update to the forecasts in early August, they continued to warn that this year’s hurricane season will be above average, suggesting the season is coming to a heavy end.

Matthew Rosencrans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said an updated forecast suggests there will be between 15 and 21 named storms, including seven to 10 hurricanes, by the end of the season on November 30. Henri is the eighth named storm. year 2021.

had last year 30 named stormsIncluding six major hurricanes, it forced meteorologists a second time to exhaust the alphabet and switch to Greek letters.

This was the highest number of storms on record, exceeding 28 in 2005, and included the second highest number of hurricanes on record.

Neil Vigdor contributing reporting.