Tropical Storm Edouard Archive – 2020 Hurricane Season

Tropical storm (SSHWS)
Duration	July 4 – July 6
Peak intensity	45 mph (75 km/h) (1-min)  1007 mbar (hPa)

On July 1, a cluster of thunderstorms known as a mesoscale convective vortex formed over the northern Tennessee Valley in association with a stalled front pattern and slowly moved southeastwards.^[79] By July 2, the remnant mesolow emerged off the coast of Georgia.^[80] As the system gradually drifted over warm sea surface temperatures near the coast, some organized thunderstorm activity blossomed near the center of the system throughout July 3 and helped the system develop a more defined low level circulation,^[81] and the NHC began monitoring the low around 0:00 UTC on July 4.^[82] Just four hours later, the circulation of the low subsequently became better defined and closed as evidenced by satellite-derived surface wind data.^[83] The disturbance rapidly developed over the next couple of hours, and at 15:00 UTC on July 4 the NHC issued its first advisory on the system as Tropical Depression Five.^[84]

The system gradually drifted north-northeast towards Bermuda while the system's central thunderstorm activity began to decrease as a result of the diurnal minimum.^[85] Little change in intensity occurred as the storm passed just 70 miles (110 km) north of Bermuda around 09:00 UTC on July 5.^[86][87] Shortly after, the storm began to accelerate northeast continuing to lack in strength, having been forecast to become a tropical storm for at least 24 hours but failing to reach the intensity,^[88] until a large burst of convection as a result of baroclinic forces allowed the system to tighten its circulation further and strengthen, allowing the National Hurricane Center to upgrade the system to Tropical Storm Edouard at 03:00 UTC on July 6.^[89] This made Edouard the earliest fifth named storm on record in the North Atlantic Ocean, surpassing Hurricane Emily, which became a tropical storm on July 11, 2005.^[89] Edouard intensified further to a peak intensity of 1007 mb (29.74 inHg) and with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 km/h) at 18:00 UTC that same day as a frontal boundary approached Edouard from the northwest, effectively triggering extratropical transition^[90], which it completed 3 hours later while located about 450 miles southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland.^[91][92] The extratropical remnants of the storm would continue to travel eastward for several days before finally dissipating over the Baltic Sea.

The Bermuda Weather Service issued a gale warning for the entirety of the island chain in advance of the system on July 4.^[93] Unsettled weather with thunderstorms later ensued, and the depression caused tropical storm-force wind gusts and moderate rainfall on the island early on July 5, but impacts were relatively minor.^[93][94]