The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is monitoring four areas of interest in the Tropical Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
An area of low pressure in the Eastern Atlantic, Invest-98, is continuing to show signs of organization with conditions favorable for additional development. A tropical depression is likely to form over the weekend as the storm inches its way across the Atlantic, moving west-northwest at 10 mph. This system has little to no chance of impacting the SE U.S.
An invest, short for investigation, is a classification the NHC uses to collect specialized data and run models to better understand a weather system.
A second invest is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms between the Cabo Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles. The NHC says that a tropical depression could still form during the next couple of days. Invest-99 has a 40% chance of development over the next two days and a 40% chance to evolve in the next seven days. As with the INVEST-98, this system is also not expected to impact the U.S. mainland.
Moving closer into the Caribbean, an area of low pressure may form slowly over the weekend and into next week. The disturbance was given a 10% chance to develop in the next two days.
In the Western Gulf of Mexico, an area of disturbed weather is predicted to have a near 0% percent chance to develop over the next two days. However, there is a good chance this feature will intensify next week and likely impact states along the Gulf Coast.
Beginning this year, the NHC extended their tropical weather outlook from five to seven days to give for extra time for severe weather warnings. This allows for smaller systems that have lesser potential to develop to be picked up and tracked, creating a busier outlook.
