Laura is gone, but will there be others

Perhaps you've heard the saying, "Cheer up, the worst is yet to come."

    After being hit by the strongest hurricane in recent history, Louisiana certainly hopes that humorous quip doesn't come true. However, it must be noted that September is the busiest month of the annual "hurricane season."

So far, the 2020 season has produced 13 named storms, including three hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S.
 
  At this time, there are three candidates to become Nana -- the 14th storm of the season.

    One is currently a disturbance off the northern coast of Florida that formed this morning (Aug. 30). Its current claim to fame is that it absorbed the remnants of Laura after the storm entered the Atlantic Ocean after a trip from Lake Charles to Washington, D.C., this past week.

    Weather watchers say this system will move north along the Atlantic coast over the next few days and could become a tropical depression by the middle of the week -- still not strong enough to merit a name.

    It is likely to be denied tropical storm status due to the colder water off the northeast coast, but forecasters say it could cause some impact to the Atlantic Canadian provinces by the end of the week.

    This system is not expected to do more than give the Carolinas a bit higher surf and some rain showers.

     Another tropical wave moved into the eastern Caribbean Saturday, heading toward the "all-you-can-eat-buffet" for hurricanes in the warm waters of the Caribbean.

     Even if this system fails to organize into a larger storm, it is expected to produce high wind gusts and downpours in the Caribbean as it travels toward Central America.

    Again, probably won't be Nana. Probably won't hit the U.S. Who knows for sure?

    The third nominee for the first storm of September is still off the coast of Africa -- the birthplace of many of our storms. This tropical wave is expected to become a tropical depression by the end of next week
or the beginning of the following one.

LOOK TO SEPT. 10   

If there is one date that defines hurricane season, it is Sept. 10. Over the past 100 years, there have been 90 active named storms in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico on this date.

    With 2020 on track to break the record for named storms in a season, is it likely it will buck the odds and not have a storm on Sept. 10? The real question might be, since there are two weeks between now and then, whether it will be Nana or Omar?

    For those keeping track of the names, after Omar there would be six more names before the storms have to be called by letters of the Greek Alphabet. Those names are Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred. 

   This week the state remembered the 15th anniversary of Katrina -- the queen of the 2005 record-setting hurricane season.     A pre-school child can tell you that "L" comes before "K," so 2020 is currently one storm ahead of 2005.

     This season began its move on the record with Cristobal, who was the earliest "C" storm in history. It lost ground with Dolly, but regained the lead with Edouard and has held it through Marco.

     However, unless two of the three current systems get on the ball, 2005 will step up to defend its title. Nate was named on Sept. 5, 2005, and Ophelia formed two days later on Sept. 7, 2005.

MOST SUMMER LANDFALLS

      This season broke the record for most named storms to strike the U.S. mainland before the end of August with seven. It broke a six-storm tie between 1886 and 1916.

      Laura is the reigning queen of 2020, leaving two dozen dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and at least four in southwest Louisiana. The storm also caused significant wind, rain and surf damage in its attack on the state.

      This most recent storm is far from the most deadly to hit the United States. In fact, there are only two "named" storms among the top 10 most deadly storms in U.S. history -- Katrina, at No. 3, in 2005 and Audrey, No. 9, in 1957.

    The other eight occurred before storms were given names in 1953. From 1953 until the 1979 season, storms were only given female names. In 1979, the Atlantic and Gulf storms were given male and female names.

     In that year, there were only eight named storms. All four bearing male names became "himmicanes"  -- Bob (Category 1), David (Category 5), Frederic (Category 4) and Henri (Category 1). Gloria was the only female-named hurricane of the season, reaching Category 2 status.

The three tropical storms of 1979 were Ana, Claudette and Elena.