Was There A Hurricane Chris? Not This Year

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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.

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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.

L​A NIÑA: Here's What NOAA Expects To Happen

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.