DAILY NEWS / TRENDING NEWS

Pryor, OK — September 15, 2025

Despite reaching the climatological peak of hurricane season on September 10, the Atlantic basin has remained eerily quiet. For the first time in nearly a decade, no named storm was active on the peak day—a rarity that has meteorologists both puzzled and cautious.

So far, the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season has produced six named storms, including one major hurricane—Erin, which reached Category 5 strength but never made landfall2. The lull is attributed to a combination of dry Saharan air, high wind shear, and stable atmospheric conditions that have suppressed storm formation3.

Meteorologist Ryan Maue described the basin as a “ghost town,” while others warned that the quiet may be temporary. Historically, about 70% of hurricane activity occurs between mid-September and October.

The National Hurricane Center had been monitoring Invest 91L, a tropical wave off the coast of Africa, with high hopes it would become Tropical Storm Gabrielle. However, the system struggled against dry air and dissipated before reaching the Caribbean5.

Still, forecasters caution that the Atlantic is entering a more favorable phase. The Madden–Julian Oscillation, a climate pattern known to boost storm activity, is expected to strengthen in the coming weeks.

Experts warn that “homegrown” storms—those forming in the Gulf of Mexico or near the southeastern U.S. coast—can develop rapidly and leave little time for preparation3. With ocean temperatures in the Gulf reaching record highs, any disturbance could quickly intensify.

“This lull is deceptive,” said Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center. “Conditions are aligning for a potentially active second half of the season.”

Hurricane Elsa, Resilient Tropical Storm Elsa kills 1 in Jacksonville, Florida, injures 10 in southeast Georgia

Even after it lost some of its punch, a resilient Tropical Storm Elsa headed across the Georgia coast and into South Carolina Wednesday night, killing one and injuring several others in the Florida border.

Elsa's maximum winds had sustained at 45 mph as it traveled over southern Georgia, the National Hurricane Center said in its 8 p.m. EDT update. From its location about 75 miles west of Brunswick, Georgia, the storm was expected to follow a steady path north and have an impact all the way up the Eastern Seaboard the rest of the week.

Flash flooding and isolated rain total up to 5 inches are possible as far north as the New England states. Tornadoes may also develop from the southeastern U.S. up to Virginia on Wednesday and Thursday.

After a slog up the west coast of Florida, Elsa made landfall around 11 a.m. Wednesday in lightly populated Taylor County along the state's northern Gulf Coast, the hurricane center said. Earlier, Key West streets had turned to roaring rivers and Tampa was blasted by high winds and heavy rains.

Authorities in Jacksonville, Florida, said one person was killed Wednesday when a tree fell and struck two cars. The National Weather Service reported 50 mph (80 kph) wind gusts in the city. The tree fell during heavy rains, said Capt. Eric Prosswimmer of the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department. He said no one else was injured.

Nearby Camden County, Georgia, a possible tornado struck a park for recreational vehicles at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base. About 10 people were injured and taken to hospitals by ambulance, said base spokesman Scott Bassett. The extent of their injuries was not immediately clear.

Off the coast of Key West, the Coast Guard and a good Samaritan boat on Tuesday rescued 13 people who were part of a group of 22 that left Cuba on a boat that capsized in waters churned by the storm. Nine people were still missing.

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Hurricane Elsa, Resilient Tropical Storm Elsa kills 1 in Jacksonville, Florida, injures 10 in southeast Georgia

 Tropical Storm Elsa makes landfall in Cuba as Florida braces for tropical storm

Tropical Storm Elsa has weakened slightly with winds dropping to 60mph as it made landfall on the southern coast of Cuba in the mid-afternoon on 5 July.

More than 180,000 residents were evacuated from the country as the storm approached, expecting to bring flooding rains through Monday before entering the Gulf of Mexico and making a second landfall on the western coast of Florida, according to projections from the National Weather Service.

Heavy rains are expected to bring “significant flooding and mudslides” across Cuba, the agency said. “Tropical storm conditions and a dangerous storm surge” will continue through central and western Cuba on Monday.

Florida and coastal Georgia could see isolated flooding though Wednesday, when the storm is likely to begin to weaken to a tropical depression.

Tropical storm warnings are in effect along the southern Florida coast, with tropical storm watches extending from Port St Joe along the panhandle towards Tampa and Fort Myers.

“On the forecast track, Tropical Storm Elsa is expected to continue to move over west-central Cuba for the next several hours, move into the Florida Straits this evening, and pass near the Florida Keys early Tuesday,” according to an afternoon alert from the National Weather Service.

Elsa strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on Friday before it weakened into a tropical storm.

Although the storm has continued to weaken as it moves over land, it is expected to gain some strength when it enters the gulf.

At least two people died as the storm struck the Dominican Republic, and at least one person was killed as the storm hit St Lucia.

The storm made landfall around 2pm EST on Monday roughly 80 miles southeast of Havana.

On Saturday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency for 15 counties, including Miami-Dade, where emergency crews performed a controlled demolition of a partially collapsed condo building in Surfside ahead of the storm’s approach.

“While we continue to provide resources to support the response at Surfside, impacts from Elsa will begin affecting the Florida Keys and portions of southern Florida as early as Monday,” he said in a statement. “All Floridians in the potential path of this storm need to prepare for the risk of isolated tornadoes, storm surge, heavy rainfall and flash flooding.”

President Joe Biden has also declared an emergency in Florida and directed federal assistance to supplement the state, tribal and local response.

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 Tropical Storm Elsa makes landfall in Cuba as Florida braces for tropical storm

 Tropical Storm Elsa drenches Cuba. Track nudges west, likely easing impact on Florida Keys

South Florida got its first taste of Tropical Storm Elsa Monday afternoon as the outermost bands began to lash the region with brief, intense bouts of rain likely to last through Tuesday.

The storm’s projected track jogged a bit west early Monday — easing the threat for South Florida, including most of the Lower Florida Keys, which now appear likely to see a windy, wet sideswipe rather than a direct hit from a small system that’s expected to strengthen after crossing Cuba.

Elsa’s path took it over most of central Cuba on Monday — where nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated and heavy rains were sweeping the island — before it’s expected to re-emerge in the Florida Straits early Tuesday morning. On Monday, storm surge and tropical storm warnings were extended north up the state and west to the Big Bend area. The easternmost part of the Panhandle was under a tropical storm watch.

Its potential Florida landfall site also shifted farther north overnight.

As of the 11 p.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Elsa appeared on track to make landfall in Florida in Horseshoe Beach, north of the Suwannee River, Wednesday morning. It was about 20 miles north, northeast of Havana and 80 miles south, southwest of Key West.

The storm weakened as it made landfall in Cuba to 50 mph maximum sustained winds, but by the 11 p.m. advisory the storm strengthened to 60 mph maximum sustained winds. Tropical storm elsa force winds extended only 70 miles from the center. Its pace dipped slightly to 12 mph. Elsa’s wind field also shrunk, with the strongest winds mostly within 60 miles of its center.

Cuba evacuated hundreds of thousands of people from the southern provinces in advance of the storm, which drenched the area in flooding rains on Sunday and Monday. Power and phone service were reported down in parts of the country but it was too early to get damage assessments.

In Havana — which may experience some of Elsa’s strongest winds — hundreds of people were evacuated from buildings that are considered unsafe, especially in older areas of the city, the Civil Defense office said. They fear gusty winds could topple some structures that have fallen into disrepair. The storm already has been blamed for two deaths in the Dominican Republic and one in St. Lucia, and crushed crops in Haiti.

Forecasters said they’ll have a better idea of exactly how Elsa will affect Florida after it finishes crossing Cuba. The latest prediction calls for Elsa’s maximum sustained winds to climb back to 65 mph before it makes landfall.

“Some restrengthening of the cyclone is likely after it moves into the Gulf of Mexico, but vertical shear associated with a broad upper-level trough over the Gulf is likely to limit intensification,” forecasters wrote in the 5 p.m. advisory.

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 Tropical Storm Elsa drenches Cuba. Track nudges west, likely easing impact on Florida Keys

 Tropical Storm Elsa is the latest evidence climate change is happening now

Tropical Storm Elsa became the earliest fifth named storm on record Thursday, the latest weather-related record this year that climate scientists warn is linked to climate change.

While Tropical Storm Elsa, whose maximum sustained winds are 45 miles per hour, is unlikely to inflict the same amount of damage as a stronger hurricane if and when it makes landfall, its formation on July 1 — following Ana, Bill, Claudette and Danny — fits into a pattern in which the changing climate makes conditions for life-threatening storms more favorable.

For the past seven years, named storms have arrived ahead of the official June 1 start of hurricane season, including this year with Tropical Storm Ana, which formed on May 23. In 2020, which tied 2016 as the hottest year recorded by humans, a record 30 named storms formed, including six major hurricanes.

While the continued rise in global surface and water temperatures has expanded the parameters of hurricane season, factors such as stronger wind shear can impede the formation of storms that might have otherwise been named, the New York Times reported. Still, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast 13 to 20 named storms this year, and Elsa’s early arrival means the season is well on its way to fulfilling that prediction.

It has already been a year of unprecedented weather events. Two record-breaking and deadly heat waves in the Western U.S.; record rainfall in Michigan, which overwhelmed Detroit’s aging storm water system; a record-breaking winter storm in Texas, which disabled the state’s power grid; the historic drought gripping nearly the entire western part of the country; and an unusually early start to so-called wildfire season in California — all of these events have been linked to climate change.

The Lava Fire, which is located near Mount Shasta, Calif., grew on Wednesday to more than 19,000 acres, forcing the evacuations of residents from homes. Just miles away, the Tennant Fire grew to more than 9,400 acres. Both blazes came after a weekend of extreme temperatures born of the heat dome that descended over the Pacific Northwest and are being aided by another year of below-normal rainfall as well as a marked increase in average temperatures.

“The mean warming in this region so far has been somewhere between 2 and 4 degrees Fahrenheit, so I think it’s fair to say that at a minimum, climate change contributed at least that much to the severity of this heat wave,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Yahoo News.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is charged with preventing and fighting blazes across the state, agrees that climate change is behind the increased wildfire activity there.

“While wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, the fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year. Climate change is considered a key driver of this trend,” Cal Fire says on its website.

The trend line, according to a draft report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, obtained by Agence France-Presse, is that unless humans stop pumping greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere, these weather conditions will continue to worsen.

“Life on Earth can recover from a drastic climate shift by evolving into new species and creating new ecosystems,” the report says. “Humans cannot.”

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 Tropical Storm Elsa forms east of the Caribbean; South Florida may be in path next week

Tropical Storm Elsa, which formed Thursday morning over the Atlantic Ocean, is moving quickly toward the Caribbean, and South Florida is potentially in its path, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Though it is too soon to determine what, if any, impacts could occur in Florida next week, officials encouraged residents to monitor the storm and make preparations. 

This includes crews at the condo collapse in Surfside, where frequent bouts of lightning and thunderstorms already have forced the suspension of rescue efforts. Showers and thunderstorms remain in the forecast for the next several days in Surfside, the National Weather Service said. 

As Elsa approaches, there is a risk of storm surge, wind, and rainfall impacts in the Florida Keys and portions of the Florida Peninsula early next week, the hurricane center said. 

Tropical Storm Elsa is forecast to drift west-northwest over open waters of the Caribbean Sea from Saturday through Monday, possibly entering the Gulf of Mexico around Tuesday.  

AccuWeather meteorologists are concerned Elsa could strengthen quickly into a hurricane as it approaches the Windward Islands. If it develops into a hurricane, Elsa would become the first of the 2021 Atlantic season. Heavy rains could lead to isolated flash flooding and mudslides in the Caribbean.

The center of the storm was about 410 miles east-southeast of Barbados as of 5 p.m. EDT Thursday. 

Rescue teams keep watch:Surfside rescue teams keep watchful eye on the Atlantic as system likely to become Tropical Storm Elsa

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 45 mph with higher gusts. Additional strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days.

The hurricane center forecast calls for winds up to 60 mph by Friday afternoon, which is 14 mph short of a Category 1 hurricane. A Category 1 hurricane has winds of 74 to 95 mph.

Elsa was moving toward the west-northwest at 29 mph as of Thursday afternoon. An even faster motion to the west-northwest is expected over the next 24 to 36 hours. On the forecast track, the system will pass near or over portions of the Windward Islands or the southern Leeward Islands on Friday, move into the eastern Caribbean Sea late Friday and Friday night and move near the southern coast of Hispaniola on Saturday.

 Tropical storm warnings were issued for Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Grenada and for portions of Haiti.

Elsa became the earliest E storm on record, beating out Edouard, which formed July 6, 2020. Elsa is the fifth tropical storm of the 2021 season in the Atlantic, following Ana, Bill, Claudette and Danny.

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