Tropical Storm Chantal formed over the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday night, becoming the third-named storm in the Atlantic Basin’s 2019 season.
Fortunately, the storm is expected to stay out to sea over the open ocean of the north Atlantic. It’s expected to move east – away from the Atlantic seaboard – and in the direction of the Azores Islands off the northwest coast of Africa. There, it’s expected to stall later this week, almost exactly halfway between the eastern United States and western Africa. It is of no threat to land, at least based on current trends and forecasts.
Of perhaps greatest significance, Chantal is the Atlantic’s third-named storm of the season and breaks an unusually quiet spell of tropical activity.
#Chantal has formed in the North Atlantic, south of Newfoundland. It is the 3rd named storm of the 2019 #hurricane season. The Atlantic went from July 15 – August 19 with 0 named storms – the first hurricane season to do so since 1982. pic.twitter.com/NKcwsLE59O
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) August 21, 2019
Chantal also formed unusually far north for a tropical storm, becoming the highest formation point for a tropical system in over 30 years.
#Chantal was named at 40.2°N – the highest latitude named storm formation location for an Atlantic tropical cyclone since Alberto in 1988. #hurricane pic.twitter.com/K5DS6VMCRy
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) August 21, 2019
Stay with WeatherNation for the latest on Chantal and the tropics.
Meteorologist Chris Bianchi