Tropical Storm Humberto Could Head for the Caribbean, Florida

Tropical Storm Humberto will be the next named storm, and it could form from a new system that popped up this weekend and is projected to move over the Bahamas and Florida.

A second tropical wave that is approaching the Caribbean in the next five days could also become a tropical depression.

The new system is a set of disorganized showers and thunderstorms a few hundred miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands. Its five-day track could bring it over the Bahamas and onto Florida’s east coast.

The immediate threat of tropical depression formation is prevented by strong upper-level winds, but the NHC puts a 20 percent chance of that within five days.

“Environmental conditions could become a little more favorable for development when the disturbance moves near the Bahamas and Florida late this week.,” the NHC said.

The system located farther away has been watched by the NHC since last week. It’s about midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Leeward Islands, and would be within 300 miles of the Leewards within five days, which was a little closer than Hurricane Dorian when it became a tropical depression. The National Hurricane Center said the tropical wave is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms.

If either one of the tropical wave investigations become a tropical depression, it would be the 9th depression of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. If it then grows to maintain at least 39 mph sustained winds, it would become Tropical Storm Humberto.

Source: The Ledger