Hurricane Season 2008 July Update

We are now eight weeks into the Atlantic hurricane season and ten weeks into the Eastern Pacific hurricane season. The Atlantic basin has had 4 named storms so far, and the Eastern Pacific basin has had 6 named storms. Hurricane Bertha, which remained out to sea, brushed Bermuda with tropical storm force winds. Bertha briefly hit Cat-3 status and apparently been the longest lived July storm (fairly complete records are only some 50 years in length). With the busiest part of the season beginning in about 4 weeks, how active this season will be remains to be determined. Remember that wind shear is more important than sea surface temperature once the threshold of 25C has been reached for tropical storm development.