Storm Names Reach 'G' and Counting Without A Hurricane This Year

Going back six decades in hurricane records, you won’t find a season with seven storms but none of them hurricanes.

And this season could easily be eight named storms by the weekend but none worthy of the word hurricane in front. The next storm is likely to develop from a tropical wave in the Caribbean Sea anytime.

It would be Harvey.

But intensity forecast models pretty much agree that wave probably will hit land before it has time to become a hurricane.

Going back to 1951, two years before officials started giving women’s names to storms, there hasn’t been a hurricane season that produced seven storms that never made it to hurricane strength.

Even in tranquil years when the National Hurricane Center didn’t reach "G" in its alphabetic name list, at least one hurricane formed.

Atlantic hurricane seasons have gone later in the year before a hurricane formed and some of those hurricanes that formed were puny and didn’t last long.

Still, they were hurricanes.

Whatever forms in the Caribbean the next few days looks to be on a track taking it into Central America or southern Mexico and probably too far south to bring Texas the rain it needs.

The 2011 season on the Atlantic side of the continent is looking more like the season in the eastern Pacific that starts earlier and usually creates more storms.

The Pacific, now at G in its list, is on a pretty typical pace this year but usually hits eight storms by Aug. 15 and sees four of those become hurricanes by Aug. 12.

The Atlantic side usually doesn’t hit eight storms until Sept. 24.

So far the 2011 season hasn’t had much to do with our weather and certainly won’t during the weekend.

Forecasters expect we will return to the more typical summer pattern the next few days with the rain coming more in the afternoons and not as many storms moving off the Gulf of Mexico in the mornings.

Friday should be another of the cookie-cutter days, with about a 40 percent chance for rain and simmering temperatures.

But on Saturday, forecasters expect a lot more rain as winds moving from the east and southeast pin the Gulf sea breeze closer to the coast.

That means thunderstorms aren’t as likely to drift west after the sea breezes collide.

Forecasters say the best chance for afternoon and evening thunderstorms Saturday is around the Interstate 75 corridor. But some storms could still pop up or drift anyplace.

By the end of the weekend, rain chances drop slightly, forecasters said.

But count on it being hot with the heat index hovering between 100 and 105 most afternoons.

And speaking of hot, anyone who spent time outside last month wouldn’t be surprised that globally, July was the seventh hottest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

That’s ranking the average land and sea temperatures around the world and more than 1 degree above the average for the last century.

However, the United Kingdom had its coolest July since 2000 and Dublin airport saw that coolest July in 46 years.