Don, a tropical storm that developed late Saturday into the first hurricane for the 2023 Atlantic season away from any landmass, returned to Tropical Storm intensity less than twenty-four hours later.
It is now the fourth named storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, three of which formed in June.
They included Tropical Storm Bret, which impacted Saint Lucia on June 22, destroying over seventy-five percent of the island’s banana and plantain crops.
Regarding Don’s brief stint as a hurricane, meteorologists explained that it drifted over cooler waters, causing it to lose intensity.
Don initially formed as a subtropical storm on July 14 and has stayed away from land during its journey.
The National Hurricane Center said maximum sustained gusts were 65 mph.
Don was moving north-northeast at 16 mph, about 350 miles southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and posed no threat to land.
However, a tropical disturbance about midway between the Cabo Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles has a 30% chance of cyclone formation in 48 hours and 40% through seven days.
This Atlantic Hurricane season’s previous named storms were tropical storms Arlene, Bret, and Cindy.
