The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida is monitoring a disturbance in the Atlantic Ocean for signs of potential tropical cyclone development. The disturbance, located near the coast of Africa, is the only area of concern the National Hurricane Center has today; they don’t expect any other tropical cyclone development to occur elsewhere in the basin through the next 7 days.
According to the NHC, the tropical wave being monitored is forecast to move off the west coast of Africa tonight and early Friday. Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for gradual development of this system while it moves generally westward to west-northwestward at 15 to 20 mph across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic during the early to middle part of next week.
The NHC expects any development would be slow to occur. As of today’s Tropical Outlook, they put the odds of cyclone formation over the next 48 hours near zero percent while the odds of formation rise to 20% over the next 7 days. The system is still more than a week away from becoming an issue for North American interests.
The Atlantic Hurricane Season began on June 1 and runs through to the end of November. Forecasters believe it will be a near-normal season, with a potent El Nino in the Pacific and an abnormally warm Atlantic Hurricane Basin canceling each other out to create what’s expected to be a typical or near-typical volume of tropical storms and hurricanes over the next 5 months.
