There haven't been any named tropical storms or hurricanes in the Atlantic since mid-August, but several weaker systems are causing issues this week.
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00:00We want to take a look at what's going on, though, with the overall recent quiet spell.
00:05It's been very unusual.
00:07The last storm to form was Ernesto back on the 12th of August.
00:10So we went from August 13th into early September with no new named storms.
00:15It's the first time we've gone through this particular stretch of the calendar
00:18without a new storm forming since 1968.
00:21So what's up? There has been a slower transition to La Nina.
00:24La Nina, cooler water over the Pacific near the equator,
00:28that's typically associated with less wind shear in the Atlantic, which leads to more storms.
00:33But if you're slower to transition to La Nina,
00:36then overall the transition to less wind shear is slower as well,
00:40and therefore we've had more wind shear for a longer period of time.
00:43That's helped some of this in check.
00:44A big part of the story has been Saharan dust and dry air.
00:47And some of these tropical waves are entering the East Atlantic
00:50from a different point near the African coastline,
00:54coming in a little farther north,
00:56which again just doesn't quite fit the mold of your typical healthy tropical wave
01:01that would lead to organization here.
01:04So things have been really eerily quiet with no active storms.
01:08There is still some wind shear in parts of the Caribbean and the Gulf at this point,
01:12and that's going to keep us from any serious trouble this weekend.
01:15We do have this tropical rainstorm leading to flooding, though,
01:18even though it's disorganized, near the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
01:23We're watching another tropical wave that we're now calling a tropical rainstorm northwest of Bermuda.
01:28That's going to run into the Canadian Maritimes.
01:30Among all these blobs here that we're highlighting,
01:33the one east of Belize is probably the greatest threat for organization here
01:39into early next week over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico.
01:42We'll keep an eye on that one.
01:43We'll also keep an eye on a few of these tropical waves over the East Central Atlantic.
01:47But the noise offshore, that disturbance that we're calling a tropical rainstorm near Bermuda,
01:52this is leading to big waves, rip current dangers up and down the east coast,
01:55and this is going to slam into Nova Scotia this weekend,
01:59bringing wind of 40 to 60 miles per hour for some,
02:02and also 2 to 4 inches of rain in places like Halifax, Nova Scotia as well.