Hurricane Humberto rapidly intensifying in the Atlantic Ocean
The season’s third hurricane formed in the southwestern Atlantic on Friday morning
Another hurricane is rapidly intensifying in the Atlantic Ocean as the latest burst of tropical activity continues in the southwest corner of the basin.
Hurricane Humberto hurriedly got its act together on Friday, and the system is well on its way to major hurricane strength by this weekend.
Forecasters are watching another system not far behind for potential wind and flooding impacts in the southeastern United States—just one year after Helene devastated parts of the region.
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Hurricane Humberto is rapidly intensifying
A favourable environment allowed Humberto to begin rapidly intensifying on Friday as it passed about 725 km northeast of the Leeward Islands.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects Humberto to intensify into a major hurricane—and potentially a high-end Category 4 storm—by this weekend as it moves northwest through the open Atlantic Ocean.
Humberto is this season’s third hurricane behind Erin and Gabrielle. If Humberto intensifies into a major hurricane as predicted, this will be the first time in 90 years we’ve seen a season’s first three hurricanes intensify to Category 3 status or stronger, according to hurricane expert Philip Klotzbach.
This hurricane isn’t expected to directly affect land within the next five days, though Bermuda should monitor its progress early next week. A moderate to high risk for rip currents will exist across the U.S. East Coast and Atlantic Canada for at least the next couple of days.
Next disturbance worth watching in the southeastern U.S.
Behind Humberto, our next system is one to watch for the southeastern U.S.
The NHC predicted Thursday afternoon that a tropical disturbance over the Greater Antilles has an 90 per cent chance of developing into a tropical depression by this weekend as it moves through The Bahamas.
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"While there remains considerable uncertainty in the long-range track and intensity of the system, there is a significant risk of wind, rainfall, and storm surge impacts for a portion of the southeast U.S. coast early next week," the NHC said in its Friday afternoon update.
Any tropical system in this part of the world is unwelcome news as western North Carolina continues recovering from the devastating flooding inflicted by Hurricane Helene last September.
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein’s office reported on Sept. 25 that 95 per cent of public roads damaged by Helene’s flooding have been repaired, and 57 per cent of public bridges damaged during the storm have been repaired or replaced. Crews had removed more than 6.1 million cubic metres of debris from waterways as of Sept. 16.
Stay with The Weather Network for all the latest tropical updates.
Header image courtesy of NOAA.