Gert (2017)

A tropical wave that moved off Africa in early August organized into a surface low east of the Turks and Caicos and became a tropical depression at 1800 UTC 12 August 2017 about 230 nautical miles northeast of the Turks and Caicos. The system strengthened into Tropical Storm Gert 6 hours later and moved generally northward and then northeastward, passing well to the northwest of Bermuda. Gert became a hurricane around 0600 UTC 15 August and remained over open waters until it weakened to a tropical storm on 17 August, became extratropical later that day, and dissipated by 0000 UTC 19 August.

Gert did not make any landfalls. It stayed over the western Atlantic, passing roughly midway between the southeastern United States and Bermuda and then accelerating northeastward away from land before becoming extratropical southeast of Newfoundland.

The hurricane’s maximum sustained winds peaked at 95 knots (about 110 mph) at 1800 UTC 16 August, with an estimated minimum central pressure of 962 mb. At its peak, Gert was a high-latitude Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale and featured a small roughly 10-nmi eye.

Because Gert remained offshore, there were no reported coastal storm surge measurements tied to the storm and no significant coastal inundation reported. Rainfall and surge impacts were minimal for populated areas; the report lists ship and buoy wind observations (for example, ship WZZF reported 44 kt at 32.9°N, 66.0°W) but no notable rainfall totals in specific cities or counties are given in the NHC report.

There were no reported deaths or damage directly associated with Hurricane Gert. The storm’s main effects were marine—strong winds and high seas reported by ships and buoys—while land areas experienced little to no impact. Forecast-wise, Gert’s formation was not well anticipated far in advance, and official track forecasts had larger-than-normal along-track errors (too fast), though cross-track errors were low; intensity forecasts initially underpredicted its strengthening and later overpredicted its post-peak strength.