As of 7 a.m. CDT, Invest 99L was located south of Andros Island in the Bahamas, the hurricane center said, and was moving slowly to the west-northwest at 10 miles per hour.
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Tropical Storm Lester has developed an eye and is now a hurricane as it moved west in the Pacific Ocean away from the mainland of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in an advisory on Friday.
An area of low pressure between the north coast of Cuba and Andros Island in the Bahamas is continuing to produce large, disorganized showers and thunderstorms, according to the National Hurricane Center. While Gaston is not headed our way the three tropical systems are expected to influence weather in the U.S.
However, environmental conditions could become a little more conducive for development early next week when the system approaches the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Rains were likely to continue over portions of eastern and central Cuba Saturday night and Sunday, the center said.
A separate area of disturbed weather in the northern Gulf is not expected to develop further before reaching he coast of Texas over the weekend.
However, heavy rainfall is possible along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to southeastern Texas during the next few days.
Meteorologists peg the system’s chances of forming a hurricane at 30 percent within two day, and 40 percent within five days.
The hurricane center said dry air near 91L could slow its development.
The center of Lester is located some 550 miles (885 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California and is packing winds of 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said in its 0300 GMT (11 am Saturday, August 27, in Manila) bulletin.
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Gaston had winds of 65 miles per hour, and the hurricane center said the storm could strengthen today and become a hurricane for the second time.
