AccuWeather meteorologists explain why it's very unlikely that any tropical storms will form before Aug. 15, but why late in the month, storm development could skyrocket.
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00:00 We continue to track the tropics where a string of waves are currently being
00:04 watched, but Bernie Reynos still says we probably shouldn't expect much from any
00:08 of them. Yeah it's the same old story in the tropics. We have a number of tropical
00:14 waves, but there's not going to be any development this week, probably next as
00:18 well. Alright let me show you the tropical waves, two in the Caribbean and
00:22 also two in the tropical Atlantic. But typically this time of the year the
00:26 Atlantic Basin and what we call the MDR, the main development region, is usually
00:32 covered in dry air. Take a look at the water vapor loop here. Look at all the
00:36 dry air. We've seen this all week covering the tropical Atlantic. We have
00:40 an upper level low here that's producing wind shear which also weakens tropical
00:45 systems. You also have dry air in the Caribbean and dry air in the Gulf of
00:49 Mexico. So that's why despite the fact we have numerous waves, there's not been any
00:53 development. Too much dry air and too much wind shear throughout the
00:57 development region. And guess what? As we get into next week, the big story is
01:01 going to be this big dip in the jet stream or trough coming off the eastern
01:04 seaboard. You know what that's going to do? That's going to increase the wind
01:07 shear throughout the Caribbean and the tropical Atlantic and there's still
01:12 going to be some dry air. So even though we're looking at tropical waves coming,
01:15 the combination of the dry air and wind shear I think shuts down production. Now
01:19 maybe something tries to develop but it's not heading toward the United
01:23 States. So we're going to keep it quiet at least through August 15th if not
01:27 August 20th. But beware, we are slowly but surely getting into the heart of the
01:32 hurricane season here. And by the time we get into late August, once we get rid of
01:37 that wind shear and once that dry air lessens and the fact that the water
01:42 temperatures are running well above normal. Look at all of this warmer water.
01:46 These are the temperature anomalies here with showing that temperatures are
01:51 running above normal. We can flip the switch real fast here. So again we're
01:56 getting close to the heart of the hurricane season which is late August
01:59 through September. With peak hurricane season approaching, AccuWeather's experts
02:06 are updating their hurricane season forecasts. We're now expecting 13 to 17
02:12 named storms. Four to eight are expected to be hurricanes and one to three of the
02:17 major are expected to be major hurricanes. AccuWeather hurricane experts
02:21 add to that two to four direct impacts are expected for the United States. Water
02:27 temperatures are averaging anywhere from a half a degree to a degree Celsius
02:32 higher than normal. Not in just pockets but almost everywhere across the Atlantic
02:37 Basin. It lowers the surface pressures across the basin making it more easy for
02:42 storms to form and then deep warm water also causes storms to quickly intensify.
02:48 In fact in many cases rapidly intensify. But typically an El Nino pattern tends
02:55 to promote more of these winds that are unfavorable in the tropics. There are
03:00 winds that change wind speed and direction with height as you go higher
03:03 in the atmosphere and that disrupts the circulation of tropical storms when
03:08 they're trying to develop. So the battle between those two conflicting factors
03:12 is why we're forecasting a near to just above normal season and it's also
03:17 importantly why we think that there can be a period of very active time in the
03:23 in terms of tropical storms and hurricanes right around the peak of the
03:26 season that's in late August and early September.