New Area of Tropical Development in Central Atlantic
An area of low pressure in the central Atlantic has a chance to develop this week, but it shouldn’t directly threaten land or the United States.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) gave the area of low pressure, located roughly halfway between the United States and Europe, a 40 percent chance of developing into a named storm over the next five days as of late Monday.
The storm has been termed “Invest 94L” by the NHC, and it would acquire the name of Rina should it strengthen to a tropical storm. It’d be the 17th named storm in what’s already been an incredibly active year, featuring 10 hurricanes, including six major ones. That’s well above the full season averages of 11 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
Like Hurricane Ophelia earlier this month, this storm will eventually be pushed eastward, towards Europe, perhaps as a hybrid post-tropical system.
The storm’s development period would appear to be in the next 2-3 days before it gets picked up by a trough of low pressure, which would likely quickly dissipate the storm. Unlike Ophelia, this storm seems more unlikely to become a hurricane, should it be named. It may impact the British Isles and Europe as a remnant low with strong winds and rain, but not nearly as strong as Ophelia’s impacts earlier this month.
Stay with WeatherNation for the latest on this storm and the tropics.
For WeatherNation: Meteorologist Chris Bianchi