Edouard becomes strongest Atlantic hurricane in nearly 700 days

Since my last post on Friday morning, Edouard was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday afternoon, then again to a Category 2 hurricane early Monday morning.  Eduoard is the fifth named storm and the forth hurricane... the last time 4 out of the first 5 storms became hurricanes was 1996 (which coincidentally used the same name list as 2014)!

The intensity is currently estimated at 105mph, making it slightly stronger than Arthur back in July of this year, stronger than any storm in all of 2013, and tied with Sandy on the morning of October 29, 2012: 686 days ago.

As of 5am EDT today, Edouard is located about 700 miles east-southeast of Bermuda in the middle of the Atlantic.  The forecast track is shown below - recurving by 60W and staying very far away from any land.

Additional strengthening is likely, and within a day or two, Edouard could become a Category 3 (major) hurricane.  It would be the first major hurricane in the Atlantic since Sandy BRIEFLY reached that status when making landfall on eastern Cuba on October 25, 2012.

Visible satellite image of Hurricane Edouard from 8:15am EDT.  (NOAA)

The disturbance that was passing over southern Florida on Friday entered the Gulf and dissipated.  Aside from Edouard, there are no other areas of interest today.

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