Hurricane center tracks four systems with tropical potential

The National Hurricane Center continued to monitor four systems on Friday that could develop into the next tropical depression or storm of the season.

However, according to the hurricane center’s tropical forecast at 8 a.m., the probability of formation was low for all of them.

One of the rainstorms on the US coast is a low pressure system that is located on a weak frontal boundary in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico.

“Upper-level winds are expected to remain unfavorable for significant development of this system as it meanders across the northwestern Gulf and eventually merges with another approaching frontal system later today or Saturday,” the forecasters said. “Although tropical cyclone development is unlikely, heavy rainfall is expected to continue across portions of the northern Gulf Coast over the next few days.”

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee estimates that rainfall from the extended Gulf system, which has produced showers as far north as the Florida Panhandle, has amounted to between 2 and 4 inches in some isolated areas since Thursday, with more rainfall expected.

The hurricane center gave the system a 10 percent chance of developing in the next two to seven days.

Several hundred kilometers east of the US Mid-Atlantic coast in the northwest Atlantic there is a storm-strong low-pressure system with an extensive area of ​​showers and thunderstorms that is assuming a non-tropical structure.

“The low is expected to move north-northeastward off the coast of the northeastern United States at 15 to 20 mph, reaching colder waters by this evening and overnight, and its chance of assuming subtropical characteristics appears to be decreasing,” the forecasters said.

The hurricane center gave the system a 20 percent chance of developing in the next two to seven days.

A tropical wave with intermittent showers and thunderstorms is located in the northwestern Caribbean Sea and toward the southwestern Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Belize and the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula.

“The wave is expected to move across Central America and southeastern Mexico today and tonight, and some slow development is possible over the weekend after the system emerges over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico,” meteorologists said.

The center gave the system a 20 percent chance of developing in the next seven days.

Then there is an elongated low pressure area in the eastern tropical Atlantic, which produces only minimal rain and thunderstorm activity.

“Development, if any, is likely to be slow as the disturbance meanders through the first part of next week and then begins moving west-northwestward across the central tropical Atlantic during the middle to late part of next week,” meteorologists said.

The center gave the system a 10 percent chance of developing in the next seven days.

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has had an eventful start, producing five named storms so far. However, no additional named systems have formed since Hurricane Ernesto dissipated on August 20.

The season runs from June 1 to November 30, with storm intensity traditionally increasing from mid-August to October.

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