FLHurricane.com: EASTerly Waves

Update - 12AM, Monday 13 Sept 2010
Add Tropical Storm Julia at 13.5N 23.5W at 13/03Z as the 36th storm on the list.

Igor became a Tropical Storm southeast of the Cape Verde Islands late Wednesday morning near 13.7N 23.5W with sustained winds of 35 knots. That makes Igor the 35th easterly (tropical) wave to attain Tropical Storm intensity at or east of 25W longitude since 1853. Only five of the previous 34 storms, or 15%, made landfall in the United States. In 1893 a Cat III Hurricane hit Georgia, in 1893 another Cat III Hurricane hit South Carolina, in 1928 a Cat IV Hurricane hit the Northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Florida, in 1938 a Cat III Hurricane hit Long Island and Southern New England, and in 1947 a Hurricane hit Florida as a Cat IV and the same storm then hit Louisiana as a Cat I. Of the 34 Tropical Storms or Hurricanes, the 1947 Hurricane was the only one to make it into the Gulf of Mexico.

A few of the storms did hit other locations: Newfoundland in 1873, Nova Scotia in 1891, Barbuda in 1906 and the Azores in 1961 and a couple of others did pass just off the east coast of Florida. The remaining 23 storms (67%) stayed at sea and had no impact on land areas. The earliest forming storm was Bertha on July 3, 2003. The latest forming storm was Ginger on October 6, 1967 – and this was also the storm that formed farthest to the east at 18.0N 18.1W. Some storms in this group that reached hurricane strength far to the east include September 5, 1948, at 14.3N 23.0W, Jeanne on September 22, 1998, at 13.1N 25.2W, and on September 6, 1980, at 13.0N 25.6W. The lowest latitude for TS formation was on October 26, 1896, at 8.7N 44.2W. Finally there is the strange case of Vince – a subtropical storm on October 8, 2005, at 32.9N 20.6W, and a hurricane the next day at 34.1N 18.9W, while moving to the east northeast toward Portugal.
ED