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National Hurricane Center monitoring 4 other tropical disturbances in Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico

By Colleen Killingsworth
Published  September 2, 2019 3:20pm EDT
Weather
FOX 13 Tampa Bay

LOS ANGELES - As Hurricane Dorian makes its slow crawl toward the Eastern United States, the National Hurricane Center is keeping tabs on four other tropical disturbances across the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

RELATED: Hurricane Dorian: Slow-moving Category 4 storm pounds Bahamas, inches closer to US coast

The first of these tropical disturbances is a low pressure system with shower and thunderstorm activity brewing about 300 miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands off the north-eastern coast of Africa.

“A tropical depression is expected to form during the next day or so while the system moves generally northwestward across the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean,” the NHC predicted.

The chance of this weather system developing into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours is high — about 80 percent. It stands a 90 percent chance of formation within the next five days.

There is a broad area of low pressure northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula over the south-central Gulf of Mexico which is producing a wide range of showers and thunderstorms. The NHC gives a 40-50 percent chance of this system turning into a tropical cyclone in the next five days as it moves slowly westward across the south-central and southwestern Gulf of Mexico toward the coast of Mexico.

Less likely to turn into a tropical cyclone is a trough of low pressure several hundred miles southeast of Bermuda. Though associated thunderstorms and showers show signs of organization, the system does not have a well-defined surface center and stands a 30-50 percent chance of formation in the next five days.

Finally, the NHC is monitoring a system that it expects will turn into a tropical wave in a few days over the far eastern Atlantic between Africa and the Cabo Verde Islands. The NHC predicts that development could begin late this week or over the weekend while it moves westward/north-westward, with a near zero percent chance of formation in the next 48 hours and a 30 percent chance in the next five days.