JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Early Monday morning, Tropical Storm Lorenzo formed in the Central Tropical Atlantic, making it the 12th storm of the season.
Let’s go over what we know about the system and whether we will see any impact from it.
The storm has winds of 50 mph and is moving NW at roughly 16 mph. Fortunately, this storm is not a concern for us as this will remain thousands of miles to our east over the open waters of the Atlantic.
Model consensus keeps this storm as a Tropical Storm, likely due to marginal environmental conditions for development. The system is fighting off wind shear this morning, but additional strengthening is likely due to the shear weakening over the next few days.
Ocean temperatures support some strengthening as well, but something that could prevent significant development is drier air aloft in its path.
While the peak of hurricane season is behind us, October is a month that remains highly active on average for the state of Florida.
Just a few years ago, Hurricane Michael made landfall near Tyndall Air Force Base in the Panhandle as a Category Five Hurricane on October 10th, 2018. More recently, Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key on Oct. 9, 2024. At one point, Milton had maximum sustained winds of 180 mph with a minimum central pressure of 895 mbar. It was the most intense hurricane since Wilma in 2005 and it tied with Rita as the fourth most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin.
The bottom line is that even though we are past the peak of hurricane season, we need to remain prepared.
Should another system develop, the next name on the list is Melissa.
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