THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, October 30, 1995               TAG: 9510300025
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

THE 11TH HURRICANE OF SEASON WANDERS HARMLESSLY AT SEA

Tanya danced along a lonely path in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday, no threat to anyone despite having become this year's 11th hurricane.

``This is not a record number of hurricanes, since there were 12 hurricanes by the end of the season in 1969,'' said Lixion Avila, a meteorologist at The National Hurricane Center in Miami.

This hurricane season also ranks second for the busiest year, topped only by 1933, when 21 tropical storms produced 10 hurricanes.

At 4 p.m. Sunday, Tanya was about 555 miles east of Bermuda, moving north at about 13 mph. Maximum sustained winds increased to near 80 mph, but little strengthening is likely today.

The storm spent most of Sunday meandering in the Atlantic, briefly steering northwest, but is expected to make a gradual turn to the northeast by today.

``It's waiting for another blast of energy from the west to pick it up and take it out into the ocean,'' said Mike Bono, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel in Atlanta.

A cold front, moving rapidly east and nearing Bermuda on Sunday, is expected to push Tanya to the north-northeast and northeast with a gradual increase in forward speed. That would bring the storm over much cooler waters and it could lose its tropical characteristics by Wednesday.

While Tanya ``should be no threat to Bermuda,'' Bono said, ``this season is not necessarily over yet.''

Even this late in the year - hurricane season ends Nov. 30 - the tropics continue to churn out tropical weather systems. The latest was an area of cloudiness and showers associated with a tropical wave about midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles. The system was showing no signs of development on Sunday. ILLUSTRATION: TRACKER'S GUIDE

STEVE STONE/Staff Chart

[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.]

Tropical cyclone data from the National Hurricane Center includes

latitude, longitude and maximum sustained winds.

Hurricane Tanya

For updates, call INFOLINE at 640-5555 and enter category

1237. For

complete tracking data on any storm,

write THR at P.O. Box 13191,

Chesapeake, Va. 23325-0191.

by CNB