Nearly five named storms active in the Atlantic for the first time since Sept. 2020

The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season has significantly increased in activity over the past few weeks.

As of Friday afternoon, there are four named storms and a tropical depression likely to become a named storm in the Atlantic. The four storms are Franklin, Gert, Idalia, and Jose. When tropical depression 12 is named it will be Katia.

The Atlantic tropical cyclone summary from the National Hurricane Center issued on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023.

According to the Canadian Hurricane Centre, that is potentially the most named storms active in the Atlantic since Sept. 14, 2020. Archives from the National Hurricane Centre have five named storms present on that date. The five named storms were Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, and Vicky.

Teddy would go on to become a hurricane and later impact Atlantic Canada. Thankfully, the storm weakened before coming into Nova Scotia on Sept. 23, 2020. Impacts were mostly relegated to some locally high rain totals and about 20,000 power outages in Nova Scotia. There were no major impacts in either New Brunswick or Prince Edward Island.

The archived Atlantic tropical cyclone summary from the National Hurricane Center issued on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020.

As for our current named storms, none of them are forecast to have an imminent impact on the Maritimes. The remnants of Idalia may approach late next week, around Friday Sept. 8, but would unlikely be in the form of a tropical system. Instead, the remnants have a chance at bringing in some rain.

The climatological peak of the Atlantic hurricane season lies ahead in mid-September.

The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is in mid-September.