National Hurricane Center goes Greek with new storm

| 18/09/2020 | 11 Comments
Source: National Hurricane Center

(CNS): No one could be in any doubt about how busy this hurricane season has been so far when the US National Hurricane Center tweeted on Friday, “Get out the Greek Alphabet” after Tropical Storm Wilfred used up the last of the season’s English alphabet name list, only to be followed by another storm within two hours in the northern Atlantic, near Portugal, which was dubbed Alpha.

Weather systems, storms and hurricanes are currently swirling all around the Atlantic, and while none of them pose a threat to the Cayman Islands, there are still two and a half months of the season left.

The only previous season in which all the English alphabet storm names were used up before it ended was 2005, but this year it has happened a month earlier than it did fifteen years ago.

Tropical Storm Alpha may be the first Greek letter name this season but it will not be the last, as TD 22 in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico is forecast to become TS Beta this weekend.


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Category: Science & Nature, Weather

Comments (11)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Those Greek names are way more menacing than the regular names. Hurricane Gamma, or, heaven forbid, Omega. *shudder*

  2. Anonymous says:

    cayman is fine…we have a 1 in 50 year chance of something happening.
    plus nothing ccoming into the carribbean in 2020

    • Anonymous says:

      1 in 50 years????
      Don’t forget that Mitch, Ivan and Paloma all happened within a ten year span!
      We must be prepared at all times, every season.
      All it takes is one storm to ruin your day.
      When South Florida was hit by Andrew in 1992 that was a well below average year for storms… but that was a devastating one.

      • BeaumontZodecloun says:

        Yes. Not to mention Michelle, Gilbert, Alan, Fox, Charlie, Isadore, Lily etc. etc. This area is listed by the NHC as having one of the highest probabilities of being impacted by tropical cyclones.

      • pete says:

        PS anon 5:34 Mitch did not directly hit us and would not be included in calculations. The center passed just over 200 miles southwest of Grand Cayman.

    • pete says:

      Anon 1247 those return periods are no where near accurate. Return period for Cayman is near 10-11 years, tropical storms 5 years.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Weird patterns. Hitting the same areas again and again.

    • BeaumontZodecloun says:

      Steering currents combined with the influence of the Bermuda/Azores high often lead to repeating patterns. It happened just like this in 2005. We just have to remain vigilant and make sound decisions for ourselves.

      I like Crown Weather, because it has all the maps, variables, radar, SSTs, and other views to enable a person to make good decisions.

      I like to lean on the models; they’re only as good as the initialisation information, but still a good indicator of intensity and vector. http://moe.met.fsu.edu/tcgengifs/

      • Anonymous says:

        Thank you.

      • pete says:

        BeaumontZodecloun the Bermuda Azores high is essentially what produces the steering current.

        In terms of the pattern if you are saying we have a season where next to no storms are coming through the Caribbean then it can be linked to the steering pattern but if your definition of a pattern has to do with number of storms then no. No correlation.

    • Anonymous says:

      I’m okay with that.

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