In the last three days, the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), which through June-August had favored storm development in the Western Pacific and suppressed storm development in the Atlantic, has abruptly jumped, and now favors storm development off Africa and in the Atlantic. The previously-smothered Atlantic hurricane season is now shuddering to life.We're still at the stage where things are very fluid, so anything's possible. Forecasts agree only on one thing right now, which is that Hurricane Florence, which degraded to tropical storm status, will restrengthen this weekend, march west, completely cross the Atlantic, and menace the U.S. coastline from North Carolina northwards in a week's time. New York and Boston may be in jeopardy.
Instead of crossing to Florida, the two storms currently traveling west from Africa are forecast to get caught together with a newly-developing storm in the center of the Atlantic. Like something out of Spartacus or a science fiction movie, the three hurricanes are forecast to circle each other in the middle of the Atlantic. I kind-of hope this forecast works out, just because of the strangeness of it.
Given that we are now at the height of hurricane season, there is always the possibility of a storm approaching Florida from the southwest or south, but these possibilities remain glimmers in Nature's eye at this point.
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