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The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has begun early for the 6th year in a row as Tropical Storm Arthur formed on Saturday night off the Florida coast and could make landfall at the North Carolina coast on Monday morning.
If your knee arthritis pain is kicking in and, like an internal radar system, is telling you a storm is coming – its prediction is not wrong.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued a tropical storm warning for parts of the North Carolina coast as forecasters say the north-northeast track of Tropical Storm Arthur may bring the system very close to or just over the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where it could make landfall sometime on Monday morning.
Forecasters say that if tropical storm Arthur does make landfall, they predict it to land somewhere just to the northeast of Cape Lookout.
Meteorologists forecast that tropical storm Arthur will push some water sure, creating rough surf, a high risk of rip currents, beach erosion and some minor coastal flooding and flooding rainfall up to 6 inches, as well as wind gusts between 30-55 mph, according to AccuWeather.
Late Saturday night, off the eastern coast of Florida, Tropical Storm Arthur became the first named storm of the 2020 season when its sustained winds reached 40 miles per hour.
As of Monday morning, Tropical Storm Arthur was poised to make landfall off of the North Carolina coast, most likely at the Outer Banks.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on June 1 and continues through November 30.
As a matter of historical record, it’s not very unusual for a tropical or subtropical storm to form before June 1 and be christened with a name after achieving sustained winds of 40 mph. From a historical standpoint, this happens about every 2 to 3 years on average.
However, what is more unusual is that the early start of the hurricane season has now occurred six years in a row.
While the Atlantic season begins on June 1, the Eastern Pacific hurricane season begins on May 15. Many hurricane scientists and meteorologists believe that the Atlantic hurricane season should also be changed to begin on May 15.
Some hurricane scientists say, now that they have more access to satellite and other observational data over the Atlantic Ocean, it makes it more likely that they will find and name storms than in the past. It could be that May 15 is actually a more accurate start date for the Atlantic hurricane season and not necessarily an early one.
Most seasonal hurricane forecasters have already predicted that the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season will be an active one come up with an above-average number of hurricanes and named storms. The average is 6 hurricanes and forecasters are predicting 8 in 2020.
Forecasters also say this season will have warmer oceans and a moderate to weak La Niña, which tends to increase Atlantic activity.
