Tropical Storm Andres became the earliest named storm on record for the basin.
The first tropical storm of 2021 in the Western Hemisphere may not have been potent or long-lived, but it was a record-setter. Andres developed on May 8-9, 2021, marking the earliest formation of a tropical storm in the eastern Pacific Ocean since satellite records began in the early 1970s. The previous record was set by Tropical Storm Adrian on May 9-10, 2017.
This is the third time in five years that a tropical storm has emerged in the eastern Pacific before the official start of the season on May 15. According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, the average date for the first named storm in the eastern Pacific is June 10, with the first hurricane arriving by June 26.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired a natural-color image (above) of Tropical Storm Andres in the early afternoon on May 9, 2021. For most of that day and into May 10, the storm had sustained winds of 40 miles (65 kilometers) per hour, with gusts to 50 miles per hour. By midday on May 10, the storm was moving west-northwest, running into strong wind shear, and weakening to tropical depression status. The storm was roughly 600 miles (950 kilometers) from the tip of Baja California.
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Image via NASA Earth Observatory
