While Philippe is now spinning about in the Atlantic Ocean as a tropical storm, it appears it’ll soon have company: the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida says there’s a 90% chance that a new tropical cyclone will develop near it in the coming days.
According to the NHC, showers and thunderstorms continue to become better organized in association with an area of low pressure located roughly halfway between the Cabo Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles. Environmental conditions are forecast to be conducive for development, and a tropical depression or storm is expected to form in the next day or so while the system moves west-northwestward across the central tropical Atlantic.
While this new system takes shape, Philippe will continue to march off to the west. The National Hurricane Center says Philippe is poorly organized is and forecast to weaken further in the coming days. As of the latest advisory from the NHC, Philippe was located about 780 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph; it’s moving to the west at 13 mph while it’s minimum central pressure is 1003 mb or 29.62″.
While Philippe is moving toward the west for now, the NHC says a westward to west-northwestward motion is expected during the next few days. Gradual weakening is also expected during the next few days; by Friday morning, it is forecast to weaken down to a tropical depression.
Elsewhere no other systems show any signs of developing into a tropical cyclone across the Atlantic Hurricane Basin.
The 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season continues through to the end of November.
