After more than three months of relative quiet, the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season started to make noise Tuesday with the formation of a pair of tropical storms, though neither is expected to disrupt North American energy interests.

Gabrielle, which had formed and then weakened last week (see Daily GPI, Sept. 6), reformed as a Tropical Storm Tuesday morning and by the afternoon was blowing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph about 95 miles south of Bermuda, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Gabrielle was moving north at about 12 mph and was expected to pass over Bermuda by early Wednesday.

Tropical Storm Humberto, the eighth named storm of the season, was about 220 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph Tuesday afternoon. NHC expected the storm to take a turn northwestward and gain strength, possibly being upgraded to become the year’s first hurricane late in the day.

NHC was also tracking a trough of low pressure just off the coast of Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula, which was producing a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms over the northwestern Caribbean Sea. The trough was expected to cross the Yucatan Peninsula and enter the Bay of Campeche early Thursday, but it was given only a 20% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone.

There has been an increase in tropical activity since the beginning of the month, but energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico and along the eastern seaboard remain unscathed.

While the consensus forecast has been for above-average tropical storm activity this year, forecasters have been moderating their pre-season predictions (see Daily GPI, Aug. 23). In a tropical forecast issued last month, Weather Services International Chief Meteorologist Todd Crawford pointed out that 70% of all named storms and 80% of all hurricanes in the past 10 years have occurred after Aug. 15, “so the heart of the season is still on the way.”