The 2013 Hurricane Season Marches On

The Tropics Were Busy This last Week

Hurricane Ingrid on 9/14, Courtesy NASA

From most people's perspective, the 2013 hurricane season has been a pretty ho-hum one so far.
However,  it might surprise a few folks to know that we are all the way up to letter I in the alphabet, and that hurricane watches and warnings are now up for parts of Mexico.

Hurricane Ingrid

Hurricane Ingrid, the ninth named system of the season, is expected to make landfall, perhaps  somewhere north of Tampico, Mexico, tomorrow morning.

And Ingrid wasn't the only fish in the sea this past week.  Gabrielle and Humberto were both making waves of their own.

Tropical Storm Gabrielle

Gabrielle, the storm that wouldn't die, first appeared as a wave on August 25.  For 10 days beginning on Sept 4, she waxed into Tropical Storm Gabrielle, and waned back into a tropical depression several times, even dissipating at least once in the process. By the time she reached Bermuda, she was at TS strength (for the third time, if I'm not mistaken) and brought those folks some very unpleasant weather before finally zipping off for the north Atlantic on Sept 13.  

Hurricane Humberto

While Humberto never made landfall, he did raise some eyebrows as he became the very first full blown hurricane of the season on September 11.  Had he held off for just a few more hours, he would have been a record maker as the latest ever first hurricane of the season in modern history.  In 2002, Hurricane Gustav formed on the same date, but a few hours later than Humberto, making him the latest first storm of his season in the last 70 years. This past week's Humberto is in second place for that particular honor.

In an average season, two to three hurricanes have already formed by this time, with the first appearing around August 10!