MIAMI — As Hurricane Sally gained strength and churned toward the Gulf Coast this week, Tropical Storms Teddy and Vicky were designated in the Atlantic as the season’s 19th and 20th named storms, each moving closer to the end of the alphabet. The Atlantic hurricane season this year has stirred up storms at such a rapid rate that there is now only one entry — Wilfred — left on the 21-name list that meteorologists use for each season. Forecasters say they are likely to exhaust the current list, given that this is the height of the season, which began on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30. “Considering we are at 20 named storms now — we’re just barely past the halfway point of the season — that’s a lot,” said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman and meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. “We still have two and a half months of the season to go.”

Source: New York Times September 15, 2020 15:33 UTC