Tropical Storm Philippe pivots toward eastern Caribbean

Tropical Storm Philippe is now pivoting more generally toward the eastern Caribbean, while a tropical depression is likely to form within days from a system in the Atlantic not far behind Philippe.

National Hurricane Center forecasters said Tuesday that the system off Africa, which is headed west-northwest toward the central tropical Atlantic, is expected to develop into a tropical depression within two or three days.

As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, the system had a 90% chance of developing within seven days and 70% chance in the next two days.

Philippe, meanwhile, which is expected to gradually weaken this week, was located about 1,490 miles east of the far eastern Caribbean, moving west-northwest at 13 mph as of 5 a.m. Tuesday. Philippe is expected to curve away from South Florida.

Philippe’s winds rose slightly early Tuesday to 50 mph, though the wind shear impacting its strength is expected to remain or increase in the next few days, forecasters said.

As a result, National Hurricane Center forecasters do not expect Philippe to change in strength in the coming days. Philippe is forecast to become a remnant low by Sunday.

The next named storm would be Rina.

So far this season in the Atlantic, there have been 16 named storms, six of which were hurricanes. Of those, three were major hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or above.

Those were Hurricane Lee, a rare Category 5; Hurricane Franklin, a Category 4; and Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend region at Category 3 strength on Aug. 30.

Hurricane season officially runs through Nov. 30.

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