Hurricane season is in its busiest stretch, and there could be something to watch in the Gulf of Mexico next week.
The National Hurricane Center expects an area of low pressure to form in the western Caribbean this weekend or early next week. It could then head northward into the southern Gulf. It could organize into a tropical depression by the middle of next week, the hurricane center said.
It’s expected to track to the north or northwest over the next few days.
The system hasn’t even formed yet, so it’s too soon to know with any certainty where it could go or how strong it could be.
Regardless, those along the Gulf Coast were urged to make sure their hurricane plans are in place and ready to go, just in case.
The hurricane center said the not-yet-formed disturbance has a 40 percent probability of becoming a tropical depression in the next seven days. That’s an increase since Wednesday.
ELSEWHERE IN THE TROPICS
The hurricane center was also watching two other areas in the tropics, and both were in the central Atlantic.
One of the disturbances was what’s left of Tropical Storm Gordon. Gordon fizzled last week and hasn’t affected land.
The hurricane center said that system was expected to interact with another area of low pressure, and there’s a chance it could form a tropical depression or storm again as it moves slowly northward in the central subtropical Atlantic.
It has a 30 percent chance of becoming a depression or storm in the next week.
The hurricane center was also watching an area of low pressure of the northwest of the remnants of Gordon.
It has a 20 percent probability of becoming a tropical depression in the next week and wasn’t expected to affect land.
The Atlantic hurricane season was widely anticipated to be a busy one, with 17 to 24 named storms possible in NOAA’s August outlook.
So far this season there have been six named storms. Four of them have become hurricanes, and three of those hurricanes hit the United States — and specifically the Gulf Coast (Beryl in Texas, Debby in Florida and Francine in Louisiana).
The Atlantic hurricane hurricane season ends on Nov. 30.
