Subtropical Storm Ana jump-starts 2021 Atlantic hurricane season

TAMPA, Fla. - The first storm of the 2021 hurricane season has formed in the Atlantic, but it poses no threat to the U.S. and is expected to dissipate in the next few days.

As expected, a low-pressure system northeast of Bermuda picked up some tropical characteristics early Saturday morning, becoming Subtropical Storm Ana. A subtropical storm is a system that has features of both tropical and non-tropical systems, and they are named from the seasonal hurricane list.

Ana was located about 205 miles (330 kilometers) northeast of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), the hurricane center said in an advisory at 5 p.m. on Saturday. It was moving west at almost 5 mph (7 kph).

The system was expected to continue its slow and erratic motion, and then dissipate by Monday, forecasters said.

A tropical storm watch for Bermuda, in effect earlier Saturday, was discontinued.

LINK: Track Ana on MyFoxHurricane.com

Closer to the U.S., a broad area of showers in the Gulf of Mexico had a chance of strengthening into a tropical depression or even a tropical storm before it made landfall over Texas, but it began moving inland overnight. It’s still expected to bring heavy rain to the already-soaked northern Gulf Coast.

NOAA issued its annual hurricane season outlook yesterday, calling for an above-average number of storms in 2021, but not as many as last year’s record-breaking season.

The Atlantic hurricane season does not officially begin until June 1, but this is the seventh year in a row that a tropical or subtropical system formed before that date.