Atlantic system likely to develop in next 5 days, hurricane center says

Robin Webb, Victoria Ballard, Brooke Baitinger and Keven Lerner, Sun Sentinel
·2 min read

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The National Hurricane Center is monitoring a new system in the mid Atlantic that has increased odds of development while anticipating a second system to appear in the southwestern Caribbean.

The first, a broad non-tropical low pressure system, became better organized during the day on Friday and is located about 550 miles east-southeast of Bermuda, according to the 8 p.m. update from the hurricane center.

Forecasters expect the system to develop into a subtropical depression to the southeast of Bermuda in the next few days. The system has a 60% chance of developing into the next tropical depression or tropical storm in the next two days and a 70% chance of doing so in the next five.

It is forecast to move over warm water creating favorable conditions for development, but it is likely to encounter wind shear by midweek, AccuWeather hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski said.

A second broad area of low pressure is predicted to emerge early next week in the southwestern Caribbean Sea. There is an expectation of some development as the system will be nearly stationary.

Forecasters give the system a 30% chance of developing into a tropical depression or storm in the next five days.

Its path is uncertain, but “there is a chance it could affect Cuba, the Bahamas and perhaps the Florida Peninsula either directly or indirectly during the fourth week of October,” Kottlowski said.

Whichever system, if either, develops into a tropical storm, would be the 26th named storm of the year and given the Greek letter Epsilon as its name.

The official last day of hurricane season is Nov. 30.

Because 2020 is a La Nina year, forecasters expect late-season storm activity to increase in October and possibly even carry into November.

The busy 2020 hurricane season is rivaling the 2005 season, which had a record 27 named storms.

Remarkably, none of the storms that have made landfall in the continental U.S. this year have hit Florida. October storms often threaten Florida as they move north and then northeastward.

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(Sstaff writer Chris Perkins contributed to this report.)

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