There's nothing like that today though as large westerly flow is very dominant in the Atlantic basin with subtropical high pressure in control. As a result, expect no tropical development and very little shower activity. The only real action was a tropical wave that tracked through the Lesser Antillies last night with showers and thunderstorms. No development is expected from that.
Looking ahead to the 2004 hurricane season reveals some name changes. Both Georges and Mitch retired back in 1998 and were replaced with Gaston and Matthew. Below are the rest of the Atlantic storm names for the 2004 hurricane season.
2004
Alex
Bonnie
Charley
Danielle
Earl
Frances
Gaston
Hermine
Ivan
Jeanne
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter
Shifting our focus further west into the east Pacific shows a disturbance off the west coast of Mexico with a broad area of showers and thunderstorms. If any development occurs, it looks to be very slow if at all.
Perhaps the most active thing we're looking at today is the huge swell moving towards the southern California coast, especially those south facing beaches. A swell of 4-7 feet is expected today along the southern California coast with possibly 9 foot breakers at times. This heavy surf and swell is not coming from a tropical system, but rather a large southern hemispheric storm system. As a result a heavy surf advisory is up for the beaches of southern California including San Diego.
That's the latest at this time. More tomorrow on the tropics and that all important surf report!!!
Jim