Happy 4th of July bloggers,
We are looking at some great summer weather through Tuesday. Temperatures will be in the 70s with a light wind this evening at fireworks time.
Why is it so hazy? When is the next chance of rain and thunderstorms? Any heat waves?
We answer the questions above and more in the 6 minute video below.
Before we answer those questions let's talk about Elsa and the records that have been broken (information from Wikipedia).
1. Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, surpassing the previous record held by Tropical Storm Edouard in 2020, which formed on July 6.
2. Elsa also became a tropical storm farther east in the Main Development Region (MDR) than any other tropical cyclone so early in the calendar year on record, behind only the 1933 Trinidad hurricane.
What is the MDR? It is a zone from the Carribean Sea to off the African coast where tropical storms and hurricanes most often form.
3. At 5:45 AM on July 2, Elsa was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane. This made Elsa the eastern-most hurricane recorded in the MDR, south of 23.5°N, this early in the calendar year since 1933.
4. Around that time, Elsa was moving at a forward speed of 29 mph, making it the fastest-moving Atlantic tropical cyclone recorded, undergoing rapid intensification in the deep tropics or the Gulf of Mexico, and also the first storm to undergo rapid intensification in that part of the Atlantic that early in the calendar year since another storm in 1908.
Elsa is a tropical storm with 65 mph winds as of 8 AM Sunday. It will likely stay a tropical storm as it tracks to the eastern Gulf of Mexico Tuesday-Wednesday. It will make landfall Tuesday night-Wednesday between Tampa and Tallahassee as a tropical storm.
Have a great and safe rest of your 4th of July weekend, stay healthy.
