ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There is a little under a month to go (20 days exactly, but who's counting?) until the official end of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.
Climatologically, we don't see that much tropical activity this time of year in Florida. Typically in November, areas of low pressure that form along stalled cold fronts in the northern Caribbean can develop tropical characteristics and become depressions or storms.
We've seen our fair share of November storms in Florida, like Eta in 2020, but hurricane frequency dwindles significantly by the middle of fall.
There are no storms in the Atlantic currently, but it's not to say that we won't see another storm before the official end of the season.
In fact, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring a non-tropical low-pressure system in the Atlantic that was responsible for bringing heavy rain to Florida and coastal flooding to the south Atlantic coast last weekend.
The nor'easter continues to push further away from the United States and has about two more days to develop subtropical characteristics before it moves over cooler waters and gets absorbed by a large upper-level trough.
The NHC is giving the disturbance a medium chance of becoming a depression or possibly Subtropical Storm Adria.
The World Meteorological Organization decided to ax the previous naming convention and comprised a supplemental list of names to be used if the main list of the season is exhausted. If Adria does form, it will be the first named storm used in lieu of the Greek alphabet. The years 2005 and 2020 were the only times on record where forecasters relied on the Greek alphabet once there were no more names to use.
Speaking of 2020, this year's hurricane season differs greatly from the last. Not only was it a very active year with 30 named storms, but November was an unusually active month. Category 4 Hurricane Eta was one of two major hurricanes that month and devastated parts of Central America before making landfall at Cedar Key, Florida, as a much weaker storm a few days later, bringing heavy rain, surge, and severe weather across the Tampa Bay area.
Following an active start to the season, it has been a quiet two months. According to hurricane researcher Phillip Klotzbatch, for the first time on record since 1950, the globe has had no major (Category 3 or higher) hurricane formations from Sept. 26 to Nov. 10.
Hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30.