Happy Monday! You may have missed this as you were enjoying your long holiday weekend, but we saw our FIFTH named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season form Sunday night: Edouard.
This is the earliest “E” storm on record, beating out Emily which formed late on July 11 in 2005. While we’ve had an unusual number of storms this early in the season, other metrics to measure season activity haven’t been as impressive in 2020. This season was only ranked 29th in terms of Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) through Saturday.
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Here's the ACE vs. TS plot by season, through July 4th.
— Sam Lillo (@splillo) July 4, 2020
2020 could bump up to 5 TSs today or tomorrow, setting a new record for the earliest 5th storm. But they have all been fairly weak & short-lived.
2020 currently ranks 29th in ACE through July 4th. pic.twitter.com/LE4fWgCJCO
Edouard will be another snoozer as it heads off to the northeast and away from the United States. In fact, it could dissipate into a remnant low later today.
All five storms this season (Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly and Edouard) have stayed at or below tropical storm status, so we’ve yet to see a hurricane in the Atlantic basin. The next name on the list is “Fay.”
Could another tropical system form later this week? We’re watching Invest 98-L, which is moving from the Florida Panhandle to southern Georgia this morning. It is expected to emerge off the Carolina coastline by Wednesday or Thursday and will have a chance to gain tropical characteristics in the warm Atlantic waters.
Your Local Weather Authority meteorologist Chris Michaels wrote about how that system could potentially impact us in southwest Virginia. He has those details plus more on this week’s forecast here.
You can always get specific forecast details for your zone, whether it’s the Roanoke Valley, Lynchburg area, Southside, or elsewhere around southwest and central Virginia, anytime at WSLS.com/weather. Know your zone!
In case you missed it, we’re posting great weather content on WSLS.com. Here are a few links from the past week to check out:
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-- Justin McKee