A Record Early Hurricane Season?
UPDATE 5/25/2012: Bud did briefly pull out a Cat 3 status last night, but it was at 00Z 5/25, one update (6 hours) away from tying the earliest major storm in the Eastern Pacific. He is now a Category 2 storm, expected to slowly weaken and make landfall over the next few days.
UPDATE 5/23/2012: Although one model continues to predict that Bud will spike to a Category 3 hurricane, nearly all other models say it is destined to remain a tropical storm.
ORIGINAL REPORT 5/22/2012: Tropical Storm Bud in the Eastern Pacific is predicted, at least by one model, to reach Category 3 hurricane strength by 8 p.m., or 00Z time, Thursday May 24.
The NHC, however, puts that probability at less than 5 percent. If it does, it will be one of only three storms in history to reach that major hurricane status in the month of May (or earlier).
If he does it that early on Thursday, he'll be the earliest major storm ever for that basin (the previous record, Hurricane Adolph, turned to Category 3 at 18Z on May 24, 1983).
Tropical Storm Aletta started out the East Pacific season early, forming as a depression on May 14, but not being named until the beginning of the season at 00 "Z TIME" on May 15. And of course Tropical Storm Alberto jumped the Atlantic gun by half a month, forming on May 15.
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