The National Hurricane Center has been monitoring the tropical disturbances for the past few days. It is expected to strengthen into a hurricane by Wednesday. At 11 a.m., the storm which was carrying maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour, with higher gusts, was about 685 miles west of the southernmost Cabo Verde Islands.
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It’s too early to say for sure whether or not it will impact the USA, but areas along the Southeast coast, especially Florida, should monitor this system as we head into the weekend and early next week. It was the seventh tropical depression of the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane season. Gaston will be a hurricane soon, but the real storm to watch hasn’t even developed yet.
The last Hurricane Gaston, in 2004, ended up making landfall in SC, eventually dropping rain on North Carolina and Virginia. As of early Monday, it was only a tropical wave off the northwest coast of Africa, but by late Monday afternoon the system – known as Invest 90L – got stronger and became a tropical depression. Gaston is also likely to turn northwest and poses no threat to land.
It’s moving west-northwest at 12 miles per hour. The image showed the system was developing a well-defined circulation and still consolidating.
Frecasters are tracking a system that could pose a threat to the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean, two disturbances have been observed by the NHC, each with a significant chance of evolving into tropical depressions and eventual cyclones, storms, or possibly hurricanes, depending on weather and environment conditions. However, it’s another area of disturbed weather that has our attention.
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This automatically updated infrared satellite animation shows a large tropical wave building strength northeast of the Caribbean. The chance for formation within 5 days remains at 60 percent.
