The Atlantic gets active again as we head into peak hurricane season

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - There are two tropical disturbances off the coast of Africa that have a chance of forming into named storms just as we head into peak hurricane season.

While the chance of these disturbances are relatively low, it proves the point that late August to early October is usually the timeframe when the Atlantic is most active.

This August has been rather quiet, which had forecasters optimistic that the dire “larger than normal” hurricane outlook for this year may be wrong, but the month is going out with a bang as two new disturbances are being closely monitored. One of the disturbances has a 40% chance of developing into a tropical storm-- or even a hurricane-- in the next seven days.

The next named storm would be Francine.

This year’s hurricane season got off to a late start with the first one spinning up in June, which was Tropical Storm Alberto. However, the next storm, Hurricane Beryl made up for lost time by becoming the earliest major hurricane on record. Beryl quickly spawned into a Category 4 hurricane in late June to early July. We typically don’t see a major hurricane until much later in the year.

Typically, September is when we see the biggest, strongest storms of the season, due much in part to the warm ocean waters.

On average, the Atlantic hurricane season reaches its peak on September 10th.