No hurricane-strength storms have formed yet this year in the Atlantic basin, but the limiting activity isn’t certain to continue.

You might be familiar with the tropical cyclone's four distinct phases, but there are some other related terms that may be confusing.

The loss ahead of peak hurricane season surprised the state’s emergency management world, including those who said Guthrie was good at what he did because he had boots-on-the-ground experience with previous jobs at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and as Flagler County’s emergency management director.

When the Pacific is overly active with tropical cyclones like Lala, the Atlantic typically remains quiet. That has been the case so far this hurricane season, with more activity in the Pacific and less in the Atlantic — but in the public imagination, one major storm can upset that relative quiet.

The only thing we do know about the next named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season is that it will be named Dolly, and that I will greet it with copious sheep, Barbara Streisand, and even “Islands in the Stream” references.

Flamingos huddling in the bathroom of Miami Metrozoo (later renamed Zoo Miami). Ron Magill along with the staff of then Miami Metrozoo) rounded up the flamingos and put them in the bathroom for safety against Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. Ron Magill

A tropical storm could soon form near Portugal, in the northeastern Atlantic. It's an odd location, experts say.

One of the areas of low pressure was moving towards Spain and Portugal and another was expected to drift into the central tropical Atlantic.