Tropical Update: What's Fiona up to?

As far as tropical seasons go, it's been remarkably quiet - one can think back to the hyperactive seasons over the last 5 years, some of which even exceeded the naming conventions of cyclones and pushed us into the Greek alphabet as a backup. This year, however, we're only up to the "F" name - merely the 6th named system of this season. As of today, Fiona is the only ongoing Cyclone in the entirety of the Atlantic basin, and it may pose a risk for Puerto Rico and, down the line, Bermuda - America, however, is a different story.

As of midday today, Fiona is a fairly robust and impressive Category 1, intensifying at a rate faster than many expected. It looks to imminently make landfall in Western Puerto Rico at this strength, but likely not much higher - the ceiling of intensification is lower when a cyclone is over or interacting with land features. This is good news for PR - some communities are still recovering from Maria in 2017, even to this day, and definitely don't need another major Hurricane.

Beyond the Hispaniola region, there are a good several days of open ocean as it continues to intensify, with models pinning it as a major Category 3 at it's maximum strength. Concerningly, Bermuda may very well be in the path of Fiona - by the time it is nearing the island, it is at maximum strength. That being said, CONUS is out of the question - the recurve north is just too far east to meaningfully impact the US in any way whatsoever, which again, is lucky - after a hyperactive last several years, we'll take any break we can get. Here is to hoping we keep up this quiet trend.