First Named Storm a Bust

Subtropical storm Andrea is already fizzling out and will probably be nothing more than a minor rain event in Florida. There's already an effort to give global warming credit for the first named storm occurring three weeks before the official start of the hurricane season, but in fact, those folks trying to make that connection would be quite wrong.

Back in 2002 the rules for naming subtropical storms were changed. They used to be called "Alpha", "Beta", and so on, but the weather folks decided to add them to the roster of tropical storms which are named during the hurricane season. Tropical storms have been named since 1951.

What's the difference between the two? Tropical storms have warm cores and the low pressure center is usually surrounded by thunderstorms. Subtropical storms like Andrea form differently.

Andrea didn't form because of unusually warm water, which is the driving force behind tropical storms, but was caused by unusually cold air coming further south than normal and reacting with the warmer Atlantic waters. And not unusually warm water either - the sea surface temperatures in that area are running right about normal. Every now and then conditions set up right for this type of subtropical storm formation, but it doesn't portend anything ominous for the rest of the season. Thanks to the change in naming conventions there may be one more named storm this year than there might have otherwise been, but that's about it. It's still too early to see just how the season will go, and hurricane experts have long said that global warming will mean fewer hurricanes, not more of them.

And let's not forget - the June 1st beginning of hurricane season is a man-made deadline. Mother Earth (or Gaia if you prefer) doesn't really care about our man-made timelines.