Here comes Hurricane Elsa!

_Elsa_

Elsa wakes up early one morning and even though she’s a bit exhausted from creating 10 summer fun stories, she loves writing about all her King characters. She’s ready to search for her next topic. She grabs a cup of coffee and heads on over to her computer. Along the way she turns on her TV and they are talking about Hurricane Elsa. What? A storm named after our storyteller. That is totally cool!

She searches for articles on Google that mention Hurricane Elsa.

‘First Warning: Tracking what may become the first hurricane of the year - The National Hurricane Center began issuing official advisories Wednesday evening on what will likely become Tropical Storm Elsa — the next storm in the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. 

As of the 10 p.m. CDT update from the NHC, the system has intensified into Tropical Depression #5; the fifth tropical system of the season. If winds intensify to 39+ mph, the system will become Tropical Storm Elsa. If Tropical Storm Elsa is born before July 6, this hurricane season would actually be outpacing the 2020 Atlantic season to date, which ended up as a record-active year. Elsa would also be the earliest “E” storm on record.

Conditions are conducive for further intensification as the storm approaches the Windward Islands on Friday, at which time it is expected to be a tropical storm with sustained winds of 39-73 miles per hour. After that time, computer models presently agree that the storm may curve northward and affect Cuba, then potentially enter the Gulf of Mexico or impact Florida.

It is important to note that while the computer model guidance is currently suggesting a track far east of Texas, there is still a high degree of uncertainty when predicting the path of a storm that is just beginning to develop. This means that the Texas coastline is not entirely out of the woods.

This fifth storm of the 2021 hurricane season continues what has already been a busier than average year. According to NHC climatology data from 1966-2009, the first tropical storm of the year doesn’t typically come until July 9. The first hurricane of the season typically comes August 10.

While Elsa is not officially forecast to reach hurricane strength at this time, some computer models are suggesting that it could.’ (Source)

Elsa is excited that they used her name for a hurricane but from what she remembers hearing about hurricanes in the past they can be very destructive. 

Let’s continue - What is a hurricane?