5 October 2025

When two tropical storm systems formed off the coast of West Africa, Humberto was first to become a hurricane, then Imelda. By the time they reached the western Atlantic they had approached each other. They were in a lose embrace on Tuesday 30 September at 11am when Meteorologist Tim Buckley posted this video of them on Facebook.

Meanwhile the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) predicted that Imelda would eventually swallow Humberto. The two hurricanes would merge.

Meteorologist Eric Snitil posted this European forecast video on Facebook at 6:00am on Wednesday 1 October. (Ignore the confusing dates and times on the video.)

The screenshot at top shows a single hurricane spinning in the North Atlantic this morning a long way east of Newfoundland. Fortunately this all happened far out to sea.

Why are we looking at European forecasts? Not only is the European model better at medium and long-range forecasts than NOAA but, due to the US government shutdown, most of the NOAA website is down. NOAA’s Hurricane Center is operating but with very reduced reporting.

Here’s what the NOAA website looks like today at noaa.gov/weather.