Will they affect us? Four tropical storms form in record time

The Atlantic is ramping up with activity as a record number of storms have been birthed in recent days.

Four tropical systems have formed in the space of 39 hours, the fastest time on record for that number of storms in the Atlantic. This breaks the previous record of 48 hours.

The fourth named tropical storm was Harold on August 22nd, which could also become the next hurricane, preceded by the formation of Emily, Franklin and Gert.

The formation of several tropical storms at the end of August is not unusual, in fact the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is statistically on September 10th.

This year however, the Atlantic provides an ideal "breeding ground" for the storms. Since spring, water surface temperatures have been 1 to 3 degrees above average - over large areas at record levels.

Warm water evaporates better and the latent energy in the air increases. This is the energy stored in the air in the form of water vapor and is also called potential energy.

When the water vapor condenses into shower and thunder clouds, the energy is released. The more energy there is, the stronger the accompanying winds and rain can be.

Atlantic storms can absolutely impact our weather, depending on their track. However they will lose their tropical characteristics as they track northward.

Tropical storms require a few key ingredients to form, with one of the most important being sea surface temperatures above 26°C.

The waters surrounding the British Isles tend to average in the mid-to-high teens (Celsius) in the summer months, so by definition cannot develop or sustain a tropical system.

We can however see strong mid-latitude storms produce hurricane strength winds, such as in the Great Storm of 1987. What we can also be in receipt of, are the remnants of such storms once they have undergone extratropical transition, albeit still bringing stormy weather.

This means that they lose their tropical characteristics as they enter the mid-latitudes with lower sea surface temperatures.

They then acquire a new name, as an ex-hurricane, or ex-tropical storm, though they do still retain their original Atlantic storm name too. Depending on their track, they can also transport very warm air to our neck of the woods.

Back in 2017 we had the remnants of ex-hurricane Ophelia, ex-tropical storm Gabrielle in 2019 and ex-hurricane Zeta in 2020, to name a few.