Historically, early October is still a time of active tropical stormformation in the Atlantic hurricane basin.At this time of year, African waves can still spin up Cape Verde storms.
However, the western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexicoare primary breeding grounds for named storms.
As for those named storms that approach the United States, they tend to tracknorthward and northeastwards, Florida and the Southeast being most likely tofeel the wrath of a hurricane or tropical storm. Peninsular Florida is morelikely to weather a landfall from the west rather than the east.
An example of a major early October hurricane is Opal, which landfall happenedon October 4, 1995, on Santa Rosa Island, near Pensacola, Fla. Highestsustained winds at landfall were 115 mph, a Category 3 hurricane.
In keeping with the nature of early October named storms, Opal was trackingnortheastwards as it made landfall on the Florida Peninsula.
During the coming week, forecasters will keep an eye upon the northeasternCaribbean Sea and the nearby western Atlantic Ocean, including the area of theLeeward Islands and Puerto Rico, were tropical cyclone formation could takeplace.
Story by AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Jim Andrews
