Tropical Storms Staying Away From U.S.

Tropical Storm Philippe developed in the eastern Atlantic during the past few days.  As you can see, it is not expected to make it this far west to affect North America or the United States.

We are ahead of last year in terms of how many named storms we've seen in the Atlantic.  The "P" storm last year did not form until mid October.  In fact, we are on pace to rival 2005, when we had 27 named storms, including some Greek letters when we ran through the entire naming list.  That year's "P" storm was also Philippe and formed in late September.

Of course, this has been a much different year in terms of intensity of the hurricanes and U.S. impact.  In 2005, we had the mega-storms Katrina, Rita and Wilma that became major hurricanes and caused lots of damage.

This year, we've only had two named storms hit the United States....Tropical Storm Lee & Hurricane Irene.  Tropical Storm Don was downgraded to a depression before it hit south Texas and fell apart quickly.

The upper level pattern trends seem to suggest that as more storms develop in the Atlantic, they will curve away from the United States and into the cooler waters of the Northern Atlantic.  Anything is possible however, and the Atlantic Hurricane Season isn't over until November 30th.

The average number of named storms in a season is about 11.  We've already  had 16 named storms this year, with more to come.  The La Niña pattern currently in the place in the Pacific actually correlates with the number of tropical systems in the Atlantic, usually resulting in more activity due to less wind shear in the tropics.