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Weekly Weather Event -Week of May 11

May 15, 2020

The information presented in this article is valid as of the publication time. Please check the National Hurricane Center for more detailed updates.

The National Hurricane Center has released statements on an expected developing storm in the Northwestern Bahamas. A tropical or subtropical storm is likely to form in this region on Saturday before moving northeast over the western Atlantic. Regardless of the system’s development, it will bring heavy rains and tropical storm force winds through portions of the Florida Keys, southeast Florida, and the Bahamas. Dangerous surf and marine conditions are also expected throughout the weekend and into next week with possibilities of rip currents along portions of the U.S southeast coast.

If this low-pressure system does become a tropical or subtropical storm, it will be renamed Arthur, making this the first named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricane season in the Atlantic runs from June 1st to November 30th, and this time frame accounts for 99% of all hurricane activity and nearly all hurricanes above a Category 2. Even so, it is not unusual for named storms to occur in May; the past five years each had a named storm before the official June 1st start date.