Tracking Post-tropical Cyclone Idalia

Idalia was a post-tropical cyclone in the Sargasso Sea on Saturday afternoon Eastern time, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The post-tropical cyclone had sustained wind speeds of 60 miles per hour. Follow our coverage here.

As the storm moved inland, it dropped excessive rain along and near the storm's path, from Florida to North Carolina. Some areas received more than 10 inches of rain.

The damaging winds from Idalia caused power outages along the storm’s path.

Idalia is the ninth named storm to form in the Atlantic in 2023.

In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that there would be 12 to 17 named storms this year, a “near-normal” amount. On Aug. 10, NOAA officials revised their estimate upward, to 14 to 21 storms.

There were 14 named storms last year, after two extremely busy Atlantic hurricane seasons in which forecasters ran out of names and had to resort to backup lists. (A record 30 named storms formed in 2020.)

This year features an El Niño pattern, which arrived in June. The intermittent climate phenomenon can have wide-ranging effects on weather around the world, and it typically impedes the formation of Atlantic hurricanes.

In the Atlantic, El Niño increases the amount of wind shear, or the change in wind speed and direction from the ocean or land surface into the atmosphere. Hurricanes need a calm environment to form, and the instability caused by increased wind shear makes those conditions less likely. (El Niño has the opposite effect in the Pacific, reducing the amount of wind shear.)

At the same time, this year’s heightened sea surface temperatures pose a number of threats, including the ability to supercharge storms.