Hurricane Center increases odds for Caribbean system and tracks two others

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The National Hurricane Center has increased the likelihood of a Caribbean system forming while beginning a search for additional systems that have the potential to become the next tropical depression or storm of the season.

The NHC's Tropical Outlook at 2 p.m. indicates that a widespread low pressure area is likely to develop over the southwestern Caribbean Sea by the weekend.

“Gradual development is possible thereafter and a tropical depression could form over the weekend or early next week as the system drifts generally north or northwest over the central or western Caribbean Sea,” forecasters said.

Heavy rain is possible in parts of Nicaragua in the southeast and east to northern Colombia in both directions over the next few days.

The NHC gives it a 10% chance of evolving in the next two days and 60% in the next seven days.

If it gained enough steam, it could become Tropical Storm Patty.

The NHC also began tracking two additional systems with low chances of development on Thursday

One of these is a low pressure trough near Puerto Rico that is producing widespread cloudiness and showers over the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the northern Leeward Islands, and adjacent waters of the Atlantic and northeastern Caribbean.

“Slow development of this system is possible over the next two to three days as it moves west-northwest near the Greater Antilles,” forecasters said. “After this period, this system is expected to be absorbed into the low pressure area over the Caribbean.”

Locally heavy rainfall is expected over the next few days from the northern Leeward Islands westward across Puerto Rico and Hispaniola to eastern Cuba and the southeastern Bahamas.

The NHC gives it a 10% chance of developing in the next two to seven days.

Then there is a non-tropical low pressure area in the North Atlantic with showers and thunderstorms about 550 miles west of the western Azores.

“However, any further development into a subtropical or tropical cyclone is expected to be slow as the system moves eastward over the next few days,” forecasters said.

The NHC gives it a 20 percent chance of developing in the next two to seven days.

The potential systems would come in the final month of the official hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 1. 30.

There have been 15 named storms so far in the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, 10 of which developed into hurricanes.

Three of them hit Florida.

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