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The five systems being watched as of early Monday morning. GRAPHIC/NHC
After a summer so far in the doldrums, the Atlantic hurricane season has jolted into action.
In a year where southern California was under tropical storm watches and warnings over the weekend -- for the first time ever -- thanks to Tropical Storm Hilary (once a Category 4 hurricane), three storms were named on Sunday.
The good news is, none of them, nor the two other waves the National Hurricane Center is watching -- will affect Florida under current forecasts.
Here's the rundown of the new family:
Tropical Storm Emily is in the central Atlantic. A minimal storm, it's forecast to turn north harmlessly and affect nothing but fish and ships.
Tropical Storm Franklin is southeast of Hispaniola, and is expected to affect the Dominican Republic and Haiti as a strengthening storm by Tuesday, and then head northeast into the open Atlantic. It could be a hurricane by late this week. But it's the only currently named storm expected to affect any land.
Tropical Storm Gert -- yeah, forget that one. It formed as a depression on Saturday east of the Lesser Antilles and was named just after midnight Monday, but it's minimal storm, and the NHC expects it to dissipate sometime Monday before it reaches the islands.
Closer to home the NHC is watching an area of disturbed weather in the Gulf of Mexico that likely would form into a depression or storm as it makes its way toward the Texas and northern Mexico coast by late Tuesday. If it gets named it will be Harold -- the name Harvey was retired after that storm slammed into Texas in 2017 and brought historic flooding rains to the Houston area. The NHC is also watching a tropical wave that just came of the African coast; if it doesn't curve out into the Atlantic like models hint at, there's a looooooong time to watch that one.
