Fox Weather's latest hurricane report says there are three low pressure areas being monitored in the Atlantic basin, including one in the Caribbean Sea that has the potential to strengthen further.
Long-range computer model forecasts agree a tropical depression or hurricane could enter the Gulf of Mexico next week, becoming the newest storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) continues to monitor a low pressure area in the southwestern Caribbean Sea that has the potential to strengthen. The low pressure area has the potential to become a tropical depression as it moves north-northwestward later this week or early next week.
The NHC said the low pressure system has a chance of becoming moderately strong next week. Even if it does not become a tropical depression, forecasters say it could still bring localized heavy rains across Central America.
Ocean temperatures remain warm and well above average for this time of year, the center's forecasters note, conditions that could fuel the development of storms later in the season.
The final month of the Atlantic hurricane season begins on November 1 and runs through November 30. The next storm name of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is Hurricane Patty.
The US National Hurricane Center is also monitoring a low pressure system in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, but that system is likely to strengthen low over the next week and is likely to be absorbed by a low pressure system in the southwestern Caribbean Sea.
A third depression is producing showers and thunderstorms in the northern Atlantic. The system, which the National Hurricane Center is tracking, is located 550 miles (885 kilometers) west of the Azores. The system is expected to slowly strengthen as it moves east over the next few days. Forecasters say it has a good chance of strengthening into a low pressure system next week.
AccuWeather predicts one to three new storms in the final month of the season. However, AccuWeather also warns that tropical depressions and storms may form after November and become active in December. This has not happened since Tropical Storm Olga formed in December 2007.
"We've said this since the beginning of the season, even before we issued our initial hurricane forecast in March, that we thought the end of the season could be pretty open. We still think that way," said AccuWeather hurricane expert Alex DaSilva.
Early season hurricane forecasts have warned of an exceptionally active Atlantic hurricane season, with the potential for 17 to 24 named storms, including 8 to 13 that could become hurricanes. The 2024 season has so far produced 15 named storms, 10 of which have strengthened into hurricanes, with four of them reaching Category 3 or higher.
