NHC: Wanda could become tropical storm, won’t threaten U.S.

TAMPA, Fla. - Subtropical Storm Wanda – which claimed the final name on the Atlantic hurricane season list – continues to meander around in the Atlantic Ocean.

The National Hurricane Center began issuing advisories on Wanda on Saturday. As of Monday morning, the storm is starting to turn southeast. By tonight, Wanda is expected to turn northeast-east, followed by a turn toward the north on Tuesday or Tuesday night.

Wanda could become a tropical storm Tuesday, but the forecast track shows it remaining in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, avoiding the U.S. altogether.

The cyclone formed from remnants of the nor’easter that impacted New England last week. Wanda gained the designation of a subtropical storm because the system is deriving its energy from sources that aren’t warm and tropical in nature.

LINK: Track Wanda on MyFoxHurricane.com

Meanwhile, forecasters say an area of interest of the coast of Africa has a low chance of developing in the next few days.

With Wanda's weekend formation, all of the names on the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season list have been used. After last year’s list of Greek names, there’s a new plan this year, with new names. If additional named storms form, the NHC would start on an auxiliary list of 21 names.

After the 2020 season, a World Meteorological Organization committee ended the use of Greek letters, deciding the practice was confusing and put too much focus on the sometimes obscure Greek letter and not on the dangerous storm it represented. 

READ: No more Greek letters: Here’s what will happen when we run out of hurricane names this time

Also, in 2020 with Zeta, Eta and Theta, they sounded so similar it caused problems. And Iota and Eta ended up being retired anyway.

The next storms will come from a new supplemental list of names headed by Adria, Braylen, Caridad and Deshawn, and ending with Will.

The Atlantic hurricane season will end on November 30.