Tropical Storms Gabrielle and Humberto roam the Atlantic

After a very quiet first half of the Atlantic hurricane season, things are looking more active at the moment, with two tropical storms roaming the Atlantic ocean basin.

Tropical Storms Gabrielle and Humberto are at opposite sides of the Atlantic, with one posing no threat to land and the other on course to affect Bermuda.

Tropical Storm Humberto

Humberto is likely to develop into a hurricane in the next 24 hours, as it feeds off the warm water to the west of the Cape Verde islands.

Despite gaining hurricane status, it going to pose no threat to land, staying over open water and drifting northwards in the coming days.

At the weekend, it is forecast to weaken quickly, as it moves over cooler waters and its energy supply is cut off.

Nevertheless, its brief rising to hurricane strength will be enough to finally deliver the first Atlantic hurricane of the season – something that I wrote about in my blog yesterday.

Tropical Storm Gabrielle

Gabrielle has been around for a little longer – initially as a tropical storm over the western Caribbean.

After reaching tropical storm strength, Gabrielle weakened to a remnant area of low pressure, before regaining tropical storm status south of Bermuda.

She is expected to pass over or very close to Bermuda on Wednesday morning local time, giving gales and heavy rain.

There’ll also be a marked storm surge of 2-3 feet above normal tides, bringing a risk of flooding – especially to coastal areas.

Thereafter, Gabrielle will get caught up in the jet stream and catapulted towards Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in Canada this weekend.

I’ll be keeping an eye on the progress of these two storms in the coming days and posting regular updates on Twitter – @liamdutton