The 2022 Atlantic Hurricane season had a slow start this year, with a named storm (Danielle) only being recently designated.
This was the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic region has gone from 3 July to the end of August with no named storm, Colorado State University researcher Phil Klotzbach said.Danielle formed as a tropical storm on Thursday as the first named storm of an unusually quiet season so far, then strengthened overnight and could mark the beginning of a buildup of giant storms in the coming weeks.
The reason for the unusually slow start to “hurricane season” stems from conditions in North Africa.
A big part of the reason it has been so quiet has been Saharan dust moving off the coast of Africa, which has really been unfavorable for tropical storms and hurricanes to develop.Dry Saharan dust essentially chokes off any thunderstorms that develop across the tropical Atlantic and that will not allow any tropical storms or hurricanes to develop (almost all tropical storms or hurricanes start as clusters of thunderstorms in the tropics).As you look back through historical averages, we typically start to get into the peak of tropical storm and hurricane season from late August right through the month of September into October.We have not seen a single named storm during the month of August – that is just the fifth time in recorded history that’s happened. The last time it happened was back in 1997, but we do expect activity to ramp up over the next several weeks as we have a couple of systems we’re keeping an eye on in the Atlantic.
Conditions have ramped up considerably, and when Danielle hit unusually warm Atlantic waters.
Danielle is also the latest first hurricane to form in the Atlantic since 2013, said Phil Klotzbach, a tropical weather researcher at Colorado State University.Another oddity in a weird Atlantic season: The storm gained strength unusually far north — near 40 degrees latitude — where hurricanes are rare. But it was record-warm ocean waters there that fueled the storm.Michael Lowry, hurricane specialist for Miami TV affiliate WPLG, tweeted that the sea surface temperature near Danielle topped 80 degrees for first time on record. Tropical storms and hurricanes require such warm water to intensify.
The news media will be quick to point to human-caused climate change as the reason for the warmer waters and Saharan dust.
On the other hand, I will simply note that there has been a significant increase in solar activity, as evidenced by the trio of solar flares recently unleashed.
The sun continues to display a flurry of activity.Space weather watchers observed a series of powerful solar flares between Saturday (Aug. 27) and Monday (Aug. 29), the most powerful of which registered as an M8-class flare and occurred on Monday at 7:07 a.m. EDT (1207 GMT), SpaceWeather.com reports(opens in new tab). M-class flares are typically described as “moderate,” but can still “cause brief radio blackouts at the poles and minor radiation storms that might endanger astronauts,” according to NASA(opens in new tab).Scientists rank solar flares into five lettered categories, of which M is the fourth strongest. Within each category, higher numbers represent larger outbursts.
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