Tracking the tropics: Hints of tropical trouble possible for first weeks of hurricane season
Regardless, tropical or not, rain is guaranteed, and it's much-needed for the Southeast, which overwhelmingly is in severe or extreme drought.
Monitoring for potential tropical activity in the Atlantic at start of hurricane season
Atlantic hurricane season is just over a week away, and eyes are turned to the possibility of some tropical trouble for the Southeast in the first two weeks of the season. Get the latest forecast:
With the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season coming up on June 1, eyes are on the possibility of tropical mischief forming along the Southeastern coast of the U.S. within the first two weeks of the season.
Typically, we spend the first few weeks of hurricane season in the Atlantic waiting for activity, with the first named storm climatologically not forming until June 20, according to the FOX Forecast Center.
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This year, we may not have to wait long, as early forecasts from the European model highlight an area off the Southeast Coast for a low developing within the first two weeks of June.
The odds of tropical development are very low right now, and whether something tropical actually forms is too early to tell.
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Regardless, tropical or not, rain is guaranteed, and it's much-needed for the Southeast, which overwhelmingly is in severe or extreme drought.
As the calendar switches to June, tropical moisture will settle over the Gulf and Caribbean, stopped from moving north by a strong area of high pressure hanging over the U.S.
The FOX Forecast Center said with the moisture in place and the high pressure, all that's needed for tropical activity is a trigger.
Currently, it looks like a trigger will come in the form of a stalled front, which is forecast to settle over the region, sparking widespread thunderstorms and heavy rain.
Afternoon thunder clouds roll onto the shore in Hollywood, Florida, in July 2021. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service / Getty Images)
These storms could cause an area of low pressure to develop, and possibly take on enough characteristics to become a tropical depression or named tropical storm.
A tropical depression is a tropical cyclone that has maximum sustained winds below 39 mph. Once a tropical depression forms, the National Hurricane Center gives it a number based on its order of formation in the hurricane season.
Early June tropics overview (FOX Weather)
The FOX Forecast Center stressed that it remains very uncertain if anything will form, but if it does, strong wind shear will keep things messy and disorganized, meaning heavy rain will be the largest threat.
For now, the FOX Forecast Center will continue to monitor the forecasts as we get closer, and it becomes more evident if tropical activity will occur.