System off Florida has 40 percent chance of becoming tropical storm: NHC

(Reuters) - A low pressure system located in the Straits of Florida, south-southeast of the mainland, has a 40 percent chance of developing into a tropical storm in the next 48 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Friday. The system could strengthen into a tropical depression later Friday or on Saturday but conditions were not favorable for significant development while it moves westward into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, the Miami-based weather forecaster said. Meanwhile, a tropical wave located east of the Lesser Antilles has a 50 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone, the NHC added. (Reporting by Arpan Varghese and Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)