Forecasters monitor Caribbean storm system

The National Hurricane Center is monitoring a broad area of low pressure over the southwestern Caribbean Sea north of Panama that forecasters say is meandering into "environmental conditions (that) appear conducive for some slow development."

The system, which is generating cloudiness and thunderstorms as it moves north, has less than a 30 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm in the next 48 hours, forecasters say.

Still, it's worth watching because most storms that affect the Tampa Bay area and west-central Florida in October develop in the Caribbean.

The last time a hurricane hit Tampa Bay was Oct. 25, 1921.