A tropical disturbance has formed in the central Caribbean Sea, north of Colombia and south of Haiti. The system has a 10% chance of developing in the next seven days, the National Hurricane Center said.
Forecasters said the system would begin to drift slowly west, toward Nicaragua later this week, but that it would encounter dry air, diminishing its chances of developing.
Meanwhile, a non-tropical low pressure system is forecast to develop along a front in the central Atlantic. The low has a 30% chance of developing into a subtropical or tropical system as it encounters warm water and other environmental factors.
Non-tropical systems, such as the Atlantic low, and the storm that dumped up to 12 inches of rain on areas of South Florida last week, gain their energy from cold and warm air interacting, while tropical systems gain their energy from warm ocean waters.
The Atlantic system is projected to move generally eastward in the coming week.
There have been 19 named storms this Atlantic hurricane season this year, seven of which were hurricanes. Three of them were major hurricanes, meaning at least a Category 3.
The two remaining names for storms from the year’s initial 21-name list are Vince and Whitney.
Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.