What's Next In The Tropics? It Isn't 'Hurricane Chris'

W​hile Hurricane Beryl has rightfully taken the headlines over the last couple of weeks, we're farther down the list of names for the hurricane season than you probably think. T​he next name on the list is actually Debby.

That's because we already had a "C" storm, although it was done in by a lack of punch and bad timing. C​hris was a short-lived tropical storm that made landfall in eastern Mexico late on the night of June 30, in the midst of Hurricane Beryl's interaction with the Windward Islands and eastern Caribbean.

With Beryl hogging so much attention, Chris apparently got missed by a lot of people: W​e noted an unusual amount of search activity this week around the term "Hurricane Chris", a storm that never was, and isn't coming - at least, not this year.

A​s for what's next, the good news is that the tropics seem to be taking a break.

S​aharan dust has taken over much of the tropical Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and even the Gulf of Mexico. This tends to put a lid on thunderstorm development and, therefore, squashes any tropical activity.

S​aharan dust is common in the first couple of months of hurricane season, but tends to lessen its impact in August and certainly by September.

M​ORE: Latest Outlook Calls For Even More Storms

Jonathan Belles has been a graphics meteorologist and writer for weather.com for 8 years and also assists in the production of videos for The Weather Channel en español. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He's a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.