Hurricane forecasters watching 3 tropical systems

Meteorologists are now watching three systems in the Atlantic, two of them now have a high probability for further development in the coming days.

An area of low presser with showers and thunderstorms in the Atlantic was visited by a reconnaissance aircraft on Wednesday, according to an 2 p.m. update from the National Hurricane Center. However, the tropical system, which was hundreds of miles east of the Lesser Antilles, lacked a well-defined center, forecasters said. The tropical disturbance has a 60% chance of becoming a tropical depression in the next two days, and an 80% chance in the next five.

The update said conditions ahead of the system are marginally favorable for development and forecasters are continuing to predict slow development for the storm. The disturbance is moving slowly toward the waters west of the Leeward Islands.

Spectrum Bay News 9 posted a spaghetti model to their Twitter account that shows the tropical system curving away from Florida and the United States.

Forecasters expect another area of low pressure located in the subtropical central Atlantic Ocean to form sometime this week. Environmental conditions are favorable for the disturbance to become a tropical depression. The system has a 70% chance of development in the next two days and 80% in the next five days. Forecasters expect the storm to move east.

Another system, a broad area of low pressure located between the west coast of Africa and the Cabo Verde Islands, is has become slightly more organized. Forecasters say gradual development for the system is possible. The tropical system has a 40% chance of forming into a tropical depression in the next two days and a 50% chance in the next five.

Meteorologists say that if the storm does become a tropical depression it’s unlikely to develop further because of unfavorable environmental conditions.

August has been unusually quiet for named storms.

Since 1950, only two years have gone without a named storm in August — 1961 and 1997, according to Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University. The last named storm this season was in early July. According to Klotzbach, the last time a hurricane season went that long without a named storm was 81 years ago.

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