U.S., World: Tropical Storm Katia could become Hurricane Katia overnight
- yeah … Meteorologists expect Tropical Storm Katia to strengthen into a hurricane tonight — making it the second Atlantic-based hurricane in a week. (Dunno if you heard, but the last one was a bit of a doozy.) The storm’s current path shows Katia moving west-northwest toward North America.
- … but Don’t freak out yet, though — the storm may never actually hit land. See, storms in the Atlantic often get blown off course by jet stream winds that run west-to-east across the U.S. Those winds plus east-to-west winds across Africa cause the storm to “recurve.” Many hurricanes die out this way. source
- » A coulda-been Katrina: Storm-trackers give hurricanes their names based on six standardized lists that they then cycle through; each year has a different list, so we’ll see 2011’s list again in 2017. Had 2005 not been a devastating year of storms, Katia would still be “Katrina”.