As the peak of hurricane season nears, two storms are being monitored for possible impacts on land, one in the Pacific and one in the Atlantic.
Elida, a strong Category 1 hurricane with winds as high as 90 mph, is forecast to stay out in the eastern Pacific. It will not impact land directly, but hazards from hurricanes extend well beyond the center of the storm.
Swells generated by Elida are expected to cause life-threatening surf and rip currents along the west-central Mexican coast and the Southern Baja California Peninsula.
Offshore swells as high as 25 feet will also be a hazard for mariners.
“Although Elida is a hurricane, it will likely track to the northwest over colder water and die,” said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.
Though Elida is expected to begin weakening sometime Wednesday, more developments are anticipated in its wake.
“The tropics of the eastern Pacific off the west coast of Mexico appear to be getting very active,” Myers said. “The computer models are predicting two more tropical storms behind this one.”
The earliest ‘J’ storm could form later this week.
A tropical wave in the Atlantic is expected to develop into Tropical Storm Josephine over the next couple of days.
The system has a 90 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression or tropical storm in the next 48 hours, according to the National Hurricane Center. If it does become a tropical storm, it would be the earliest storm on record to begin with a “J.” The previous record was August 22, 2005.
This would continue the record-setting pace of this hurricane season, which has smashed previous records set during the infamous 2005 season. That season saw 28 named storms, 15 of which were hurricanes.
The tropical wave was 900 miles west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands and moving to the northwest on Tuesday.
Computer models are suggesting it will move to the north of the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico this weekend, as a tropical storm.
Whether it will affect the mainland United States remains uncertain, but the National Hurricane Center is monitoring it closely.
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. The areas covered include the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea.
