By Clint Thompson
It is peak hurricane season, so specialty crop growers will be closely eyeing the weather forecasts with fall production season currently underway across the Southeast.
While the remnants of Hurricane Hilary continue to impact California this week, all is currently quiet for the Southeast. But that could change in an instant, especially since three tropical storms popped up on Sunday in the Atlantic, according to weather.com.
While none are expected to threaten the Southeast, it is a reminder of how quickly storms can form. Pam Knox, University of Georgia Extension agricultural climatologist, explains why.
“There’s waves coming off of Africa and there’s plenty of hot water, but there’s also a lot of wind shear from the storms that have been coming over us, and that’s kept anything from developing,” Knox said. “If we have any breaks in that, all of the other ingredients are there, so we could see some pretty quick development.”
Peak hurricane season normally lasts through October.
Knox noted in her blog in early July that Colorado State University released its third forecast for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. They increased the number of storms expected and called for an above-average Atlantic basin hurricane season in 2023.
Feature keyphrase: Hurricane development
Slugs: Knox weather hurricane development
Category: Weather
Use a hurricane-related picture. Maybe a satellite image or graphic showing hurricanes or tropical storms in the Atlantic.