(Bloomberg) -- The Atlantic storm season has started to stall after having one of its most ferocious starts on record.
There are currently three potential weather systems — one in the Caribbean, another in the central tropical ocean and a third near Cabo Verde off Africa — that could become a named storm within a week. Yet odds are low.
Labor Day weekend in the US was the first time in 27 years the holiday passed without at least a tropical storm in the Atlantic, commercial-forecaster AccuWeather Inc. said. The company reduced its seasonal forecast to 16 to 20 named storms, down from 20 to 25 earlier this year.
Dry air, wind shear and unusually cool water off the coast of Africa is contributing to the hurricane drought, AccuWeather said. A storm gets a name when its winds reach 39 miles (63 kilometers) per hour, or tropical-storm strength.
All of this is in sharp contrast to June and July when Hurricane Beryl became the earliest storm to reach Category 5 power in records going back to 1851. Beryl rolled over the Caribbean and up into Texas knocking out power to thousands and causing billions of dollars in damage and losses.
By early August five storms were named, which was ahead of a typical year, but since then nothing has caught on. It may be that the African monsoon went too far north disrupting nature’s machinery, Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the Colorado State University’s seasonal forecast, said last month. But as time passes it’s caused some uncertainty among the community.
“Still haven't seen a good explanation of why the Atlantic was able to produce the strongest hurricane on record in the early season (Beryl), then shut off in mid-August! Not easy to understand folks...” Eric Blake, a senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said in an X post.
In other weather news:
Pacific: Typhoon Yagi is rolling across the South China Sea and is forecast to grow into Category 4 storm on the US, five-step, Saffir-Simpson scale, according to the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The center of the possible track will take it Hainan and then across Beibu Gulf into Vietnam near Hanoi as at least a Category 1 typhoon. Everywhere from Hong Kong to central Vietnam are in the cone of uncertainty.
Floods: There are flood watches out across the US Gulf Coast from Texas to Mississippi through Friday morning, the National Weather Service said. Heavy rain is forecast to sweep the region, which may result in low-level areas flooding and rivers overflowing their banks.
Heat: High temperatures are bearing down across the US West Coast and Southwest as heat advisories and excessive heat warnings have been posted throughout the area. Los Angeles — city and county — are covered by the an excessive heat warning. Temperatures in Los Angeles are forecast to reach 100F (38C) on Thursday and Friday and 101F in East Los Angeles, the National Weather Service said.
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