Tropical Depression 12 losing strength, disturbance moves toward Central America

A tropical system heading toward Central America continues to grow in strength, while a second system in the Atlantic will likely lose steam by Thursday.

Neither system currently poses a threat to Florida or the United States.

Forecasters are calling the system in the Caribbean “potential tropical cyclone 13.” A potential tropical cyclone is a disturbance that is not yet a tropical cyclone, but could bring tropical storm or hurricane conditions to land within two days.

The system, which will likely be named Julia, will stay to the south of the Gulf of Mexico, according to Spectrum Bay News 9 Weather.

The disturbance was about 35 miles south-southwest of Curacao and about 175 miles east-southeast of the northern tip of the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said in its 8 p.m. update.

The system was moving west at about 17 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. The system will probably develop into a tropical depression or tropical storm later Thursday night, the hurricane center said.

Forecasters expect the system to move near the ABC Islands, the coast of northwestern Venezuela and the Guajira Peninsula of Colombia through Friday morning. It then is forecast to cross the southwestern Caribbean Sea, approach the San Andreas and Providencia islands by Saturday night and reach the Nicaraguan coast Sunday — likely as a hurricane, according to the 8 p.m. update.

Further east, a second system, Tropical Depression 12, was about 800 miles west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands. The system had maximum sustained winds of 30 mph around 5 p.m. Thursday, according to the hurricane center.

The tropical depression was moving west-northwest at about 15 mph. The hurricane center expects the system to weaken and to become a remnant area of low pressure by Thursday night.

Times staff writer Amy Gehrt contributed to this report.

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