The latest hurricane report from NBC News Chicago says October is the end of the year with tropical storm activity, but there are still six weeks left in the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, and forecasters are closely monitoring any potential low pressure areas that could strengthen.
Social media videos show a storm named Nadine forming off the coast of Mexico, but none are currently forming in the area, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
Eric Burris, a WESH meteorologist in Orlando, NBC's office, stressed that after Milton, there will be no new storms forming and heading toward central Florida.
Trust people who deserve your trust, not some random person on social media, he said.
Currently, the US National Hurricane Center is monitoring two systems, including Hurricane Leslie in the central Atlantic. Hurricane Leslie is producing maximum sustained winds of 145km/h in an area about 2,735km from the Azores.
Hurricane forecasters expect Hurricane Leslie to start turning north and then east, eventually weakening in the coming days.
The second system is a low pressure area being monitored off the west coast of Africa. Forecasters say the low has a 20 percent chance of strengthening into a named tropical system next week.
The hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, meaning there is still one and a half months left for storms to form, according to the US National Hurricane Center. There is still a chance of typhoons forming outside the time frame of the typhoon season but they are not common.
Weather Channel said that there have been five hurricanes that have hit the US this year, with Debby, Helene and Milton making landfall in Florida. Hurricane Beryl hit Texas in July while Francine made landfall on the Louisiana coast in September.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is considered intense as it sees an average of just one to two hurricanes making landfall in the United States in a hurricane season, according to NOAA. The most storms to hit the United States in a year have been 6, with the most recent in 2020.
In its seasonal hurricane forecast for 2024, NOAA said this is the year with more named storms in the Atlantic than usual. NOAA forecasts 17-25 named storms, meaning storms with maximum sustained winds of 62 km/h or more. Of these, 8-13 are expected to become hurricanes, with 4-7 of them strengthening to Category 3 or higher.
So far, the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has produced 13 named storms, with nine becoming hurricanes, including Hurricane Beryl (level 5), Helene (level 4), Kirk (level 4) and Hurricane Milton (level 5).
