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Hurricane center tracking 3 disturbances in Atlantic, one with ‘high chance of development’

Updated: 01-11-2024, 02.31 PM

The National Hurricane Center said Friday it is tracking three systems in the Atlantic, including one that is likely to become a tropical depression in the coming days.

The NHC said a “broad area of low pressure” is likely to develop over the southwestern Caribbean Sea during the next day or so, and “gradual development” is possible thereafter.

“A tropical depression is likely to form late this weekend or early next week while the system drifts generally northward or northwestward over the central of western Caribbean Sea,” hurricane center forecasters said Friday morning.

“Regardless or development, locally heavy rains are possible over portions of the adjacent land areas of the western Caribbean,” the NHC said.

The hurricane center gives the system a 70 percent chance of formation through the next seven days. The next named storms of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season will be Patty and Rafael.

The National Hurricane Center said Friday it is tracking three disturbances in the Atlantic, including one that could become a tropical depression this weekend or early next week.

NHC keeping tabs on 2 other systems in Atlantic

The hurricane center also said it is tracking two other systems in the Atlantic, although both have low chances of formation.

The first one is described by the NHC as a “trough of low pressure” located near Puerto Rico that is producing a “large area of showers and thunderstorms” over portions of the Greater Antilles and the adjacent waters of the Atlantic and northeastern Caribbean.

“Slow development of this system is possible during the next few days as it moves west-northwestward near the Great Antilles,” NHC forecasters said Friday morning, although after that time, the system is expected to be absorbed into the low pressure area over the Caribbean.

“Regardless of development, locally heavy rains are possible during the next several days from the northern Leeward Islands westward across Puerto Rico and Hispaniola to eastern Cuba an the southeastern Bahamas,” the NHC said Friday.

The second system is described by the hurricane center as a “storm-force non-tropical low pressure area” located about 400 miles west of the western Azores. The system is producing limited shower activity, and some subtropical development is possible while the system moves eastward during the next few days, according to the NHC.