Tropical Storm Martin forms; no threat to U.S.
Track for Tropical Storm Martin
November is the final month of the official hurricane season, and it started by checking off another name on the Atlantic list.
Tropical Storm Martin formed in the North Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday morning. The National Hurricane Center said the storm is located about 550 miles east-northeast of Bermuda and is moving east at 12 mph.
Martin poses no threat to the U.S., and the FOX Forecast Center expects it to weaken and merge with a larger low-pressure system later this week.
The NHC assigns names to tropical storms and hurricanes from one of six rotating lists. Martin is the 13th named storm of the season after the development of Tropical Storm Lisa on Monday.
PREVIOUS: Tropical Storm Lisa forms in Caribbean Sea with no threat to Florida
Tropical storm vs. subtropical storm
Forecasters said early Tuesday the Martin could have been either a tropical storm or a subtropical storm. The NHC eventually designated it a tropical storm.
A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds between 39 and 73 mph.
A subtropical storm is sort of a hybrid storm, meaning it has characteristics of both a garden-variety low-pressure system and a tropical cyclone. However, unlike a typical low, a subtropical storm gets a lot of its energy from warm ocean water and has maximum sustained winds of at least 39 mph.
If either of these types of systems generates winds of at least 74 mph, they become hurricanes.