First named storm of the 2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season has finally formed southwest of Bermuda. The National Hurricane Centre has named the storm as Andrea, which is currently a Sub Tropical storm.
Currently, Andrea is the only storm in the ocean around the world and is 1000 km away from Florida coast. It is not likely to affect any landmass as such.
A low pressure area had developed a few hundred miles away, in southwest of Bermuda and has now become concentrated enough. Andrea is currently packing winds of around 60-65 kmph.
The low pressure area in the Atlantic was existing since the past week. Yesterday Andrea moved towards the Bahamas after gaining strength. While the storm has enough strength to be categorized as a named storm, it does not look like a very strong system.
The storm is expected to be a short lived one and may not survive for more than 48 hours and may become a depression by Wednesday morning (local time), which is even some time before it happens to reach Bermuda.
Heavy rains for a brief period may be seen over parts of Bermuda with sea conditions remaining rough for a while.
Currently, the waters in which Andrea is moving have temperatures around 26 degrees Celsius and as it moves northwest, the temperatures will only drop in the waters, restricting not only the strength but also, the sustenance of the system.
Hurricane begins on June 1 in the Atlantic and lasts till November. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Typhoon season starts on May 1. Storms can form anytime but before the official hurricane season begins, storms are not seen before June 1.
2019 is the fifth consecutive year wherein a named storm has come up before the official beginning of the season. 2015 had storm Ana, 2016 Bony, 2017 Erlene, and 2018 Alberto. The earliest storm was seen in 2003 and 2017 where the first named storm formed on April 16. The latest that a storm formed in the Atlantic was in 1977, on September 1.
Image Credit: CIMSS