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The Atlantic is hopping: two tropical storms, three disturbances and a new wave

There’s a tropical disturbances on each side of Florida. Fortunately Tropical Storms Paulette and Tropical Storm Rene don’t threaten land.
 
The Atlantic Ocean was busy Thursday with two tropical storms, three tropical disturbances and a new wave on the way off the coast of Africa, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The Atlantic Ocean was busy Thursday with two tropical storms, three tropical disturbances and a new wave on the way off the coast of Africa, according to the National Hurricane Center. [ National Hurricane Center ]
Published Sept. 9, 2020|Updated Sept. 10, 2020

It’s getting harder to track all of the storms coming and going in the Atlantic Ocean.

There are two tropical storms and three tropical disturbances scattered across the Atlantic on Thursday in the midst of a busy storm season. And a sixth system could soon emerge as well.

Disturbance 1 is the one that could concern Florida the most in the coming days. It is a trough of low pressure with a patch of disorganized showers and thunderstorms located several hundred miles east of the Central Bahamas, according to the National Hurricane Center.

It is expected to move west across Florida on Friday and enter the warm Gulf of Mexico waters this weekend. There, conditions favor it strengthening into a tropical depression early next week. It has just a 10 percent chance of strengthening in the next day or two, but a 40 percent chance over the next five days.

“Usually for any tropical system that gets near our area, that means a lot of rain,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Keily Delerme on Wednesday. “As of right now, if this were to get near us by Friday, it will probably just bring rain and that’s all we’d worry about at this moment.”

Disturbance 2 appeared earlier Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico and is also producing thunderstorms. It is expected to move west, and then southwest, away from Florida’s west coast in the coming days. It as a low chance of strengthening in the coming days: 10 percent in the next 48 hours and 20 percent over the next five days.

Related: An earthquake hit Florida on Thursday. How often does that happen?
The Atlantic Ocean was busy Thursday with two tropical storms, three disturbances and a new wave forming off the coast of Africa, according to the National Hurricane Center. [ National Hurricane Center ]

There’s also two tropical storms still churning in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Paulette was about 935 miles east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, moving west-northwest at 10 mph and generating maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.

Rene was located about 800 miles west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands, moving west-northwest at 12 mph and generating maximum winds of 50 mph.

Neither is considered a threat to Florida or land, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 2 p.m. Thursday advisory. Both storms are expected to make a northwestern turn in the coming days, reach colder waters and dissipate.

Disturbance 3 is moving away from the Cabo Verde Islands off the coast of Africa is called Disturbance 3. It is expected to slowly develop into a named storm in the coming days. It has a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression by this weekend and a 90 percent chance of getting even stronger in the next five days.

Meteorologist forecast another tropical wave coming off the African coast in the coming days. Disturbance 4 could become a tropical depression early next week as it moves slowly westward. It has a 40 percent chance of doing so over the next five days.

The next named storms of this season are Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred — and then the list is depleted (it stops at w; storms are not named using the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z.) Meteorologists will start naming storms after Greek letters such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, etc.

The last time that happened was during the historically active, and destructive, Atlantic hurricane season of 2005. There were a total of 27 named storms that year, exhausting the list of names. So meteorologists named the remaining storms that year Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta. This season has been compared to 2005.

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