Last Call for Hurricanes

The Atlantic hurricane season is officially from June 1 to November 30, a six month span which encompasses over 97% of tropical activity. And as if hearing the bartender announce ‘last call’, a storm now churning deep in the southwest Caribbean is threatening to strengthen to a tropical depression.

According to the National Hurricane Center on November 16, 2016:

A large area of disorganized cloudiness and showers over the southwestern Caribbean Sea is associated with a broad low pressure system. Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for slow development of this disturbance during the next several days, and a tropical depression is likely to form late this week or over the weekend while the low moves little.
• Formation chance through 48 hours…low…30 percent
• Formation chance through 5 days…high…80 percent

If the storm strengthens, it would become the 16th tropical depression in the deadliest Atlantic season since 2005. In late September, Hurricane Matthew became a powerful Cat 5 storm, barreling up the Caribbean and causing more than 1,600 deaths, mostly in Haiti.

So far, the 2016 season has generated 15 tropical depressions, with six hurricanes and three major hurricanes reaching Cat 3 intensity.

Source: NHC, Miami Herald