Another system now located over the north-central Gulf of Mexico has a 10 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours, the NHC added.
Advertisement
The tropical wave on everyone’s watch list has been hard to forecast because without an identified center, computer models used to forecast a path of a system don’t have a good place to start.
Accuweather said before reaching Florida, it will bring a threat of flash flooding, mudslides and rough surf and seas to the Turks and Caicos, Cuba and the southern and central Bahamas into Friday and this weekend. It is moving northwest with a speed of 17 miles per hour. forecasts said that Gaston will continue this path for a few days until it moves northeast.
A tropical disturbance could become a hurricane and threaten Florida and the Gulf Coast in the next few days, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The system, which never managed to organize itself well enough to become Tropical Storm Hermine, has almost fizzled out north of Cuba.
Gaston recently became the third hurricane of the Atlantic season, but has now weakened back down to tropical storm strength. Development will be slow due to dry air that the system will encounter, the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm is centered about 1,195 miles (1,925 kilometers) east-southeast of Bermuda and is moving northwest near 17 mph (28 kph).
The hurricane center said that environmental conditions wouldn’t be all that great for 99L to organize over the next day or so.
Forecasters also began tracking another disturbance in the northern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas and Louisiana early Friday. It now stands at a 30% chance of development over the next two days and if it holds together it goes up to 60% over the next five days.
However, this storm has been brewing for so many days now that all eyes will be on Invest 99L as it proceeds towards Florida today and over the weekend. But forecasters say there’s still a chance it could find footing in warm waters over the Bahamas and make a powerful landfall in South Florida and the Keys.
Advertisement
The chances of development were only 10 percent. Between Sunday and Monday, the storm could dump two to four inches of rain across the island chain, Monroe County emergency officials said.
