HISTORIC HURRICANE SEASON....

While the weather is quiet in these parts I thought I'd talk about the tropics. Now, most of the time these systems don't impact the Midwest. However, occasionally we can get the remnants of these systems or we can get the high moisture levels in our area. Earlier this year Tropical Depression Cristobal made it all the way to the Upper Midwest and dumped heavy tropical rains. That was months ago. Now, around the peak of hurricane season, we have to start using the Greek alphabet.

Here are the current storms:

You can see Wilfred in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean. Subtropical Storm Alpha already weakened, but Tropical Storm Beta is now threatening the Texas Gulf Coast. This is only the second time in history we've had to go into the Greek alphabet for hurricane names. The last (and only other) time was the very active and historic 2005 season (Hurricanes Katrina & Wilma happened that year).

Here's a list of the names that have all been used:

And now the list of Greek alphabet names that will be used:

2020 is already pacing ahead of 2005. Alpha was first used on October 22nd, 2005 so we've hit Alpha over a month sooner... Additionally in 2005 the last named storm was Zeta (actually lasted until January 6th, 2006) and if this year continues on it's current pace it would likely pass Zeta on the list.

Tropical Storm Beta is the one to watch right now, which will slowly drift toward the Texas coast over the next few days:

The main threat will be very heavy rain, that could be upward of 15" in parts of southeast Texas:

Quite the opposite in terms of rainfall here in the Midwest. We are going to have another week of quiet weather. Here's a look at the rainfall totals through Friday:

This hurricane season is just another example of 2020 going into the record books!

RK