By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 3rd June 2022) — Senior Meteorological Officer at the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA) Elmo Burke has informed that a total of nineteen (19) storms are expected for the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Making an appearance on the government’s ‘Working For You’ programme on Wednesday 1st June, he gave the forecast based on Colorado State University projections: “We’re anticipating about nineteen storms, nine of which may develop into hurricanes and out of those nine, we’re anticipating four of those may develop into major hurricanes — that is, hurricanes reaching categories three, four and five.”
Burke highlighted that the hurricane season runs from June 1st to November 30th, while noting that systems can form before or after these dates. He pointed out that several tropical waves had already come off the eastern African coast and traversed the Atlantic without developing. The first potential Atlantic system of the season was being tracked on the Pacific side and was expected to enter the Atlantic basin as a deprecated system before potentially regenerating. “Once it forms into a tropical depression or tropical cyclone, it would be given the name Alex,” Burke said. A hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with sustained winds of 75 miles per hour or greater; a tropical storm has winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour; and a tropical depression has winds less than 39 miles per hour.