Hurricane Center monitors 3 Atlantic systems; Gabrielle expected to become hurricane

Cheryl McCloud, Treasure Coast Newspapers
Updated

We're definitely in the peak of the 2019 hurricane season, with three systems showing up on National Hurricane Center maps Saturday morning.

A fourth disturbance, which had been drifting near the eastern Caribbean was taken off the NHC's map on Saturday.

Dorian has retained hurricane status as it heads away from the U.S. east coast, but parts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland remain under a hurricane warning. Tropical Storm Gabrielle is not expected to threaten any land areas as it struggles with some unfriendly conditions over the central Atlantic. And a third system associated with a tropical wave, has a 60% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next five days.

Overview of the tropics on Saturday, Sept. 7
Overview of the tropics on Saturday, Sept. 7

Tropical depression forecast for next week

A broad area of low pressure associated with a tropical wave is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms a few hundred miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands.

Latest on Dorian: Dorian, now headed toward New England, left 70K homeless in Bahamas, U.N. says

Photos: Bahamas damage from Hurricane Dorian

Gradual development of this system is possible, and a tropical depression could form by the middle of next week while the system moves westward across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic Ocean.

  • Formation chance through 48 hours: 10 percent

  • Formation chance through 5 days: 60 percent

Tropical Storm Gabrielle expected to become hurricane

Gabrielle wasted no time before becoming a tropical storm — for the second time — Thursday morning.

Gabrielle is now expected to become a hurricane early next week, according to a 5 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center. The storm has been struggling over the open Atlantic for a day or so, but strengthening is expected to resume Saturday.

The tropical storm has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and is moving quickly to the northwest at 17 mph.

A decrease in forward speed and a turn to the north are forecast to occur by Sunday morning.

There are no hazards affecting land.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Gabrielle expected to be hurricane; 3 systems in hurricane forecast