BALTIMORE — June 1st kicked off the start of the Atlantic hurricane season and it was fitting that we saw our first named system just a few days later. Potential Tropical Cyclone One lived up to the hype and was named Tropical Storm Alex over the weekend as it began to swing off to the east.
Tropical Storm Alex is expected to weaken as it heads into the Atlantic Ocean over the next few days and become an extratropical low, but it did not leave our shores quietly. Before Alex reached tropical storm status, it had passed over southern Florida and left many areas flooded due to torrential rains and storm surge. Place like Miami, Ft. Myers, and the Florida Keys saw torrential rainfall on Friday and Saturday. Some places, like Hollywood, saw rainfall amounts of over a foot in a 48 hour period.
Now that we have the first A name crossed off our list, what would the next tropical cyclone be named? Bonnie is up next on the list issued earlier this year by National Hurricane Center.
We are not sure when the next tropical cyclone will form yet but Alex is just one of 19 tropical storms that was predicted by Colorado State University for 2022. One thing that we can say for sure is that as the sea surface temperatures continue to warm up in the Atlantic Basin, conditions will also ripen for tropical cyclone formation. The time between August and October is the peak season for tropical cyclones in the Atlantic and when sea surface temperatures are the warmest.
Stay tuned!
