THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 28, 1995 TAG: 9510280304
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
This year's dizzying spin through the storm-name alphabet continued Friday as Tropical Storm Tanya whirled into existence southeast of Bermuda, making this hurricane season the second busiest on record in the Atlantic.
Only two names - Van and Wendy - remain before the official list of storm titles is exhausted and the National Hurricane Center resorts to an old backup: phonetic names, Able, Baker, Charlie . . . .
The hurricane season has just over a month to run, although the traditional peak passed in August and September.
``I would not be shocked if we got one more storm,'' said Betsy Abrams, a senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Atlanta.
For now, hurricane trackers are monitoring Tanya, which developed rapidly Friday.
At 5 p.m., the center was about 575 miles southeast of Bermuda, moving northeast near 9 mph. That motion was expected to continue overnight. Maximum sustained winds were near 50 mph and some strengthening is possible today.
The storm is no threat to land.
``It's a fish storm,'' Abrams said. ``That's what we call them behind the scenes, off the air'' when all they threaten is open ocean.
Abrams, who has been charting storms since the '70s, said she is amazed at the number of storms this year. Only 1933, with 21 tropical storms and hurricanes, has been busier.
``There's usually not much after the end of October,'' Abrams said. But she is reluctant to suggest this season might end with Tanya. After all, ``Back in August, they were lined up off the west coast of Africa like jets taking off. I've never seen it look like that.''
Abrams said the energy is out there to generate more storms, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, which is warmer than normal for this time of year.
In the past century, only 21 storms have occurred in early November; 13 in midmonth; and just a half-dozen in the end of the month.
Normally, late-season storms develop in the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico or the western Caribbean Sea. In that respect, Tanya is unusual. But not unique. Several late-season storms have developed in the central Atlantic.
And a few have threatened the mid-Atlantic region.
One of the most recent - Gordon - came last November. It turned south before reaching the Outer Banks and eventually hit Florida, then spun northeast along the coast before dissipating in the Carolinas. by CNB