Hurricane Blas – the second named tropical storm in the eastern Pacific is no threat to land. It will continue moving west and weaken to a tropical storm and then a tropical depression.

There are no hurricanes or tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean and none in the western Pacific:, as I write this.

This is a summary of hurricane and tropical storm activity so far in 2022. The far right column is the ACE Index. This is how meteorologists measure the strength and number of tropical storms. Note that so far, are having another year with below average tropical storm activity globally.

The current ACE Index for the North Atlantic is 1.8, just slightly above the average of 1.6. This was from Tropical Storm Alex. That storm dumped up to 11″ of rain on S. Florida, but it was only a tropical depression when the heaviest rain was falling. It became a hurricane later as it continue moving ENE.

All of the other global sectors have a below average ACE Index to date, including the Northwest Pacific Basin with has a 17.4 ACE to date compared to an average ACE to date of 32.5. Globally we’re at 132.5 compared an an average ACE of 204.2.

I expect the North Atlantic sector to have above average ACE this season and the NW Pacific sector to continue to have below average ACE this year.

One more thing to add – a little perspective. The maximum sustained winds from Tropical Storm Alex were 70 mph. The peak gusts from the Monday night t-storms were 82.3 mph at the S. Haven Lighthouse and 98 mph at Fort Wayne IN. The peak wind in the Gaylord tornado was 150 mph. Here’s the wind report from Fort Wayne for June 13th. The average wind over the 24-hour period was just 7.5 mph, the fastest gust as the storm moved in was 98 mph.

WIND (MPH)                                                              
  HIGHEST WIND SPEED    74   HIGHEST WIND DIRECTION     N (360)         
  HIGHEST GUST SPEED    98   HIGHEST GUST DIRECTION     N (360)         
  AVERAGE WIND SPEED     7.5 

The peak wind gust in Grand Rapids Thursday was 45 mph.