According to the National Hurricane Center, Nigel was a Category 1 hurricane in the Sargasso Sea on Monday afternoon eastern time.
The hurricane had reached winds of 80 miles per hour. Follow our coverage here.
Tropical storm force winds, with sustained speeds of at least 60 kilometers per hour, typically arrive as weather conditions begin to deteriorate, and experts say their estimated time of arrival is a good deadline for completing storm preparations and evacuating if requested .
Arrival times and chance of damaging winds
Tropical storm speeds or higher
Nigel is the fourteenth storm to form in the Atlantic Ocean in 2023.
In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted there would be 12 to 17 named storms this year, a “near normal” number. On August 10, NOAA officials revised their estimate upward to 14 to 21 storms.
There were 14 named storms last year, after two extremely busy Atlantic hurricane seasons in which forecasters ran out of names and had to resort to backup lists. (A record 30 named storms formed in 2020.)
This year there is an El Niño pattern, which arrived in June. The intermittent climate phenomenon can have far-reaching effects on weather around the world, and typically hinders the formation of Atlantic hurricanes.
In the Atlantic Ocean, El Niño increases the amount of wind shear, or the change in wind speed and direction from the ocean or land surface to the atmosphere. Hurricanes need a calm environment to form, and the instability caused by increased wind shear makes those conditions less likely. (El Niño has the opposite effect in the Pacific Ocean, reducing the amount of wind shear.)
At the same time, increased sea surface temperatures pose a number of threats this year, including the ability to boost storms.
Sources and notes
Tracking card Source: National Hurricane Center | Notes: The map shows odds of at least five percent. The forecast covers the five days beginning up to three hours before the last reported time and location of the storm.