CHARLOTTE, N.C. — You can be forgiven if you’re a little worn out from hurricane season. Ida rolled through the eastern half of the United States last week, bringing massive storm surge, surreal inland flooding, and devastating tornadoes along with it. That said, things may only heat up further from here as we enter the peak of hurricane season over the next few weeks. Right now, there’s only one named storm to talk about, but there are rumblings of some more company to come. Let’s start with Hurricane Larry.
As of Sunday’s 11 PM update, Hurricane Larry remains a high-end Category 3 storm with winds approaching 125 mph. While not cut-and-dry, Larry is showing characteristics of an annular hurricane. Meteorologists describe annular hurricanes as storms with a massive eye and donut-shaped convection around the center. In fact, the storm’s eye is an astonishing 40 miles across! An “average” hurricane typically has an eye 10-20 miles in diameter.
Larry is currently battling a swath of dry air trying to eat away at its outsides, but the storm has been holding strong over the past few days and should continue to maintain its strength through the Labor Day holiday. That said, the major hurricane will likely begin to weaken by midweek, as it cruises into cooler waters near Bermuda. While the island territory will be spared of a direct hit, Bermuda should see gusty winds and even a few strong storms starting Wednesday morning.
Larry will not bring any direct impacts to the Carolinas either, but despite swirling several hundred miles to our east, we’ll need to watch carefully for a strong rip current risk over the next several days along the Carolina coastline. Larry will continue its trek northward and should lose tropical characteristics by next weekend.
Watching Out for “Homegrown” Systems
While Larry almost certainly won’t be a threat to the continental U.S., we’ll need to keep a close eye on storms popping up closer to home. Right now, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) is monitoring an area of thunderstorms that have emerged over the southern Gulf of Mexico. Although it only has a 30% chance of development, models have been trending more bullish about its future. This broad area of low pressure is expected to hit the brakes over the Gulf next week, which could boost its prospects for development. Either way, the central-eastern Gulf Coast should stay alert. If this storm were to get a name, it would be called Mindy.
Furthermore, long-range models have been consistently developing a separate system in the Gulf two weeks from now. Normally, we wouldn’t give such a long-range forecast too much credence, but trends have been very consistent over the past few days. No matter the case, the average peak of hurricane season is only one week away. Stay Weather-Wise and download our weather app to stay up-to-date on the latest at home and abroad.
