Another tropical storm could develop in Caribbean Sea after Halloween as hurricane season nears final month

TAMPA, Fla. - A new area to watch for tropical development has been highlighted by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in the southern Caribbean Sea.

The odds of development over the next week have risen into the medium range, but the FOX Forecast Center believes those odds could increase even further as the final month of the Atlantic hurricane season approaches.

A broad area of low pressure is expected to develop over the southwestern Caribbean Sea around the middle of this week. That would coincide with the return of the Central American Gyre, which had a hand in creating hurricanes Helene and Milton, and more recently, Tropical Storm Nadine.

The outlook for an area to watch in the southern Caribbean Sea.(FOX Weather)

"Gradual development is possible thereafter, and a tropical depression could form late this week or over the weekend when the system begins to drift northward or northeastward over the southwestern and south-central Caribbean Sea," the NHC wrote in its latest outlook.

Most of the time, these storms aren’t a threat to the U.S., but occasionally, a late-season tropical system can come out of the Caribbean and impact Florida or provide a glancing blow to the Eastern Seaboard.

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"A track toward the north can’t be ruled out, although a weak system meandering in the Caribbean seems about as likely," FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross said. "In any case, we’ll be watching for developments all week."

The next storm to receive a name in the Atlantic Basin – which includes the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico – will be called Patty.

Elsewhere across the Atlantic Basin, the tropics are expected to remain quiet as we enter the final days of October and approach the start of November.

Nov. 30 will mark the final day of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.

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