Subtropical storm Ana is first named storm of Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane season in the Atlantic is off to an early start for the seventh consecutive year, with subtropical storm Ana forming near Bermuda on Saturday.

The National Hurricane Center began advisories Saturday morning as Ana began moving west. The storm is expected to move in a slow and erratic manner through Saturday night, bringing rain and gusty winds before gradually weakening over the coming days, the NHC reported.

The 2021 hurricane season in the Atlantic will likely see above-average activity, with 13 to 20 named storms predicted. NOAA is predicting six to 10 of those storms to become hurricanes with winds of 74 miles per hour or higher. The agency is expecting three to five major hurricanes with winds of at least 111 miles per hour, NPR previously reported.

But experts expect less hurricane activity than last year's season, a record-breaking year with 30 named storms that exhausted the list of names. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30, but there has been debate on changing the start date with named storms occurring in May in recent years.

Ana's arrival serves as a warning for residents living along the East Coast and Gulf Coast to begin preparing for the upcoming hurricane season.

"Now is the time for communities along the coastline as well as inland to get prepared for the dangers that hurricanes can bring," Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. "The experts at NOAA are poised to deliver life-saving early warnings and forecasts to communities, which will also help minimize the economic impacts of storms."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

• Warm weekend gives way to a wetter pattern next week
• Water safety and air quality awareness as we near the start of summer
• Severe storm risk in NW Minnesota; Twin Cities may see evening pop-up thundershowers