A ‘disruption’ thousands of miles away in the eastern Atlantic Ocean has meteorologists nervously wondering whether they will see the successor to Hurricane Milton taking shape.
A slow start to the 2024 hurricane season was brutally disrupted as first Helene and then Milton made their way through Florida and the Carolinas, killing more than 270 people.
Another is possible before the relative safety of December is reached, and scientists are trying to calculate whether a weather system brewing just a few hundred miles off the coast of Africa will become Hurricane Nadine.
Currently known as ‘Invest 94L’, it is in the Atlantic Ocean hurricane incubator west of the Cape Verde Islands and is beginning to approach.
“We don’t know yet if this will be a player, it’s far away and generally at this time of year we don’t look that far out into the Atlantic for development,” says the Weather Channel’s Orelon Sidney. “But hey, it’s this year.”
Meteorologists, including the Weather Channel’s Orelon Sidney, have identified ‘Invest 94L’ in the eastern Atlantic Ocean as a possible successor to Hurricane Milton
Early models show the baby storm in the Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane nursery could grow into something between a moist squib and a monstrous Category Four
‘The system is forecast to move generally westward to west-southwestward over the tropical Atlantic, where environmental conditions could become more favorable for gradual development in the central tropical Atlantic by the middle of the latter part of this week Ocean,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in its latest update.
Sidney said forecasters are generally “looking a lot closer to home for development” as October approaches.
And a disruption closer to home is also causing concern for weather watchers as it gains momentum in the Caribbean.
“Not only are the waters in this area very warm – well into the 80s – the ocean heat content in the western Caribbean is at record highs at any time of year,” said Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather’s chief hurricane forecaster .
“Hurricanes Beryl, Debby and Helene were all affected by the abnormally warm waters in this region this season, while Hurricanes Francine and Milton formed in a similar environment over the southern Gulf of Mexico and quickly strengthened.
“All of these storms eventually hit the U.S.”
Currently, none of the disturbances are expected to affect the US, but that could change quickly.
‘The system is forecast to move generally westward to west-southwestward over the tropical Atlantic, where environmental conditions could become more favorable for gradual development in the central tropical Atlantic by the middle of the latter part of this week Ocean,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in its latest update.
Helene and Milton brought the number of major hurricanes of Category 3 or more that have emerged off the US coast this season to four, one more than the average of three, with more than a month of the season remaining.
“One possibility would take the system westward into Central America and southern Mexico, and the other is unfortunately toward Florida,” DaSilva said.
“It’s usually very difficult for a tropical system to move toward the northwest and Texas this late in the season because of the prevailing westerly winds in that area.”
That will be little comfort to the thousands of victims still cleaning up after Helene and Milton’s impact.
Scenes of tornado damage associated with Hurricane Milton in several communities in North Fort Myers, Florida
A drone image shows the dome of Tropicana Field ripped open due to Hurricane Milton in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 10, 2024
Tracking forecasts show enormous variability in the likely course of the baby storm
Your browser does not support iframes.
The latter, which was registered as a fearsome Category 5 hurricane hours before making landfall in Florida late Wednesday, turned out not to be the once-in-a-century storm many had feared, but insured losses for the hurricane are estimated at in the range of $30 billion to $60 billion.
At least 16 people have been killed since the storm broke out in the Atlantic Ocean after smashing through coastal communities and knocking out power to more than three million customers.
The federal response to the latest disaster has become a major issue in the presidential election, with former President Donald Trump warning on Sunday that it could prove to be his rival’s “October surprise.”
“I think we were a bit lucky in the sense that it was bad, but it wasn’t as bad as they thought. And many governors have done a good job.” Trump told Fox News this on Sunday. “But the response from the White House was absolutely terrible.”
The former president has claimed that President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris are not responding appropriately because the hardest-hit areas are all red or red-leaning states.
“The other problem that’s really big, I think, is how poorly they’ve done with North Carolina and parts of Georgia. “If you look at what happened and Florida, we all see what’s happening there,” he told Fox host Maria Bartiromo.
President Joe Biden spoke Sunday after a briefing by federal, state and local officials in Florida during a tour of areas hit by Hurricane Milton
The remains of a building stand after Hurricane Milton made landfall, in Lakewood Park, near Fort Pierce, in St. Lucie County, Florida, USA, October 10, 2024
Trump and his allies have claimed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is giving only $750 to families in need of assistance, stoking fears among residents that if they accept aid, the government could take ownership of their homes.
The White House has repeatedly said this is disinformation and has called on Trump to publicly correct himself.
Speaking during a church service at the Koinonia Christian Center in Greenville, North Carolina on Sunday, the vice president called out the information Trump is spreading about the storm response.
“Unfortunately, the motives are honestly quite transparent: to gain an advantage for themselves, to play politics with the heartbreak of others,” she claimed.