Thanks to Saharan dust, storm season has been calm, but will it last?

This is normally the time of year when we have our eyes set on what's happening in the tropics, even paying attention to storms as they form off the coast of Africa.

But, despite a hurricane season that was predicted to be very active, things have remained quiet for us. Here in Southeast Louisiana, we can never get to comfortable, but LSU Climatologist, Barry Keim says there are some significant factors contributing to the storm silence thus far.

“Number one, there is a Saharan dust layer that has shielded us, even with higher than normal sea surface temperatures. Second, the storms themselves are originating in at different latitudinal coordinates so they are not following the same path of intensification.

Things aren’t totally quiet, however.  There's a tropical wave off the coast of Texas that may send soggy weather our way.  It isn't expected to become a significant storm.

There were many warnings at the beginning of storm season about there being a very active one with more than a few named storms; twenty-five to be more precise. Keim says conditions could still change and the predictions could still come to fruition.

“The La Nina is in place and it only intensifies through the end of the season. It can cause a back-loaded season.”

Keim says that the pace and some of the conditions of this season are reminiscent of the storm season of 2020 when Louisiana saw the likes of Hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Zeta.