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Hurricane Humberto Isn't Here To Hurt Anyone

by Seth Millstein

The first hurricane of the season has officially come into existence, as officials promoted Tropical Storm Humberto to Hurricane status at around 5:00 am EST today. But it poses no risk the U.S., and may avoid American coastlines entirely.

The Category 1 hurricane came close to being the latest-forming first hurricane of any season, a record currently held by Hurricane Gustav in 2002. Yet Humberto just couldn’t help itself, and made the jump from tropical storm to hurricane three hours shy of the record.

Humberto’s winds are expected to hit around 90 mph over the course of the next 12 hours, then gradually decrease to half that by the week’s end. It’s headed towards the U.S. but, according to Jared Smith, operational meteorologist at MDA Weather Services, it’ll only get about halfway across the Atlantic before turning north.

“It’s pretty much a non-story for anyone in North America,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Gabrielle doesn’t look to be posing much of a threat, either. It brushed by Bermuda earlier this morning without incident, and is now forecast to curve northeast toward Nova Scotia.