Tropical Storm Cristobal – the third named system of a quiet 2014 hurricane season (so far) – formed near the Bahamas early Sunday. The storm is expected to become a hurricane within the next 72 hours, although current forecast tracks have it steering well clear of the Eastern Seaboard.
In other words don’t cancel your Labor Day beach plans …
As of 6:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, Cristobal was packing maximum sustained winds of 47 miles per hour as it moved north-northwest at around seven miles per hour. A timely trough of low pressure is expected to impact the system over the next few days, pushing it east of the American mainland.
As we noted, it’s been a quiet 2014 season so far … similar to 2013.
The Atlantic basin produced fourteen named storms last year, only two of which became hurricanes (and none of which turned into major hurricanes).
By contrast in 2012 there were 19 named storms including ten hurricanes – two of which were major storms. There were also 19 named storms in 2011, including seven hurricanes – four of which were major storms. In 2010 there were … you guessed it … 19 named storms including twelve hurricanes, five of which were major.
Hopefully things will stay quiet as the summer winds down …
South Carolina has seen 23 hurricane landfalls since 1893 – the most infamous being Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Fortunately the state has avoided any direct hits from major storms since then, although there have been several close calls – including Hurricane Irene in 2011.
For those of you keeping score at home, here’s the five-day forecast window for Cristobal, courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) …
(Click to enlarge)
And here’s the forecast track …
(Click to enlarge)
8 comments
Time to fire up the ol’ Eco-friendly, HI-DEF, sodium and gluten free, Super Doppler, VIPER, 360 degree, polarized, oscillating, wireless, mobile, MOS-DEF, green, NOAA licensed, nanotechnology driven, diverse, OSHA approved, GPS enabled, 32 bit, mega-giga-terabyte, integrated, non aerosol, solid state, WIFI compatible, plasma, sustainable, ultra sharp, razor thin, flat screen RADAR storm tracker (with FUTURECAST) Platform
*TBG heads to garage with trepidation and half a sixpack dangling from his right hand. Sure hopes STA-BIL was added to the tank last year…
TBG, I have the exact same system but I paid only an extra $ 125 for the audio option.
TBG hopes to have saved enough to add 3D and Dolby10 Surround Sound for next season.
Heard they’re coming out with your choice of a Jim Gandy, Bill Walsh or Jim Cantorre hologram for the 2015 edition.
Sure hope our systems are compatible!
Well, ya’ got me beat on that….
The hurricane center is playing it safe, most of the guidance is even further east with this one. Yep every one it’s a fish.
Let the media-driven melodrama begin! Everyone..to Home Depot…OSB and duct tape people…and stop by on your way home to clean the grocery shelves of white bread and bottled water.
aren’t you glad to live in South Carolina? No drought. No crazy fires. No crazy hurricanes–so far. We are blessed with moderate climate. We are not a major crime center. We have adequate rain, adequate sunlight. We can grown peaches, veggies, flower gardens. We have it good.
Right on, but you’ll get nowhere on this site preaching SC’s virtues (and you edited out the low crime rate, low population density, low cost of living, and magnificent environment- mountains, rivers, inlets, and the Atlantic). We are, though, evidently the dumbest, most inbred, backwards, ignorant bunch of nitwits ever to tread the Earth to hear some of the folks on here describe us. Must be why so many many people are moving here…