According to the National Hurricane Center, the chance of formation during the next 48 hours is medium (40 percent) but the chance of formation during the next five days is high (70 percent).
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However, regardless of development squalls to tropical storm force should be expected over portions of the northern Leeward Islands and the north U.S. and British Virgin Islands by Wednesday afternoon. Lester was expected to become a hurricane on Friday.
Meanwhile, the central Atlantic saw hurricane Gaston quickly develop late on Wednesday before it was downgraded to a tropical storm.
99L was expected to move near south Florida and the Florida Keys and into the Gulf of Mexico, where forecasters think it could have a better chance of development.
The National Hurricane Center predicted 2016 to be the strongest hurricane season since 2012, according to its updated Hurricane Season Outlook released in August. There are also the questions of what wind sheer, which has already hampered development of the storm, will do to the system in the coming days. Tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles from the center. The CNN is continuously updating their report about this tropical waves and storms to inform Americans and tourists. Some long-term models even point to one or two more disturbances developing off the coast of Africa after the first week of September.
As soon as a closed circulation is found – the track and intensity forecast will be much more accurate.
Meteorologist Kweilyn Murphy said whether the system becomes tropical, it will impact areas of the Caribbean, and needs to be monitored as it moves near the Florida coast.
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A tropical weather system moving over the Bahamas early Friday has the potential to bring heavy rain and gusting wind to south Florida, the National Hurricane Center said.
