USA Today's latest hurricane report says less than a week after Hurricane Milton swept through Florida, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center are monitoring a low pressure area that could strengthen into the newest hurricane of the 2024 hurricane season, Hurricane Nadine.
This low pressure area, west of the Cabo Verde Islands in the Atlantic, has a 60% chance of strengthening into a tropical depression next week.
The low pressure area is AL94, revealed senior forecaster Anthony Reynes of the National Weather Service in Miami. He called the system he is tracking a "potential storm".
As AL94 moves westward, warmer ocean waters and environmental conditions could create favorable conditions for the system to strengthen into a tropical depression.
The latest hurricane forecast from the US National Hurricane Center says AL94 has a 10% chance of strengthening into a tropical depression in the next 48 hours and a 60% chance of strengthening in the next 7 days.
The US National Hurricane Center predicts AL94 will move west or west-southwest in the coming days. By the end of the week, as it moves west-northwest and approaches the Leeward Islands, about 563 km southeast of Puerto Rico, AL94 could strengthen into a tropical depression.
In addition to AL94, forecasters in the US are monitoring another area that could potentially become a hurricane. AccuWeather forecasters believe there is a risk of forming a moderate low pressure area in the western Caribbean from October 17 to 19.
"A large low pressure area is likely to form in the southwestern Caribbean Sea in the mid- to late afternoon this week," the US National Hurricane Center said on the afternoon of October 14. The center predicts a 20 percent chance of the low pressure area forming over the next seven days.
The potential Caribbean storm "has one scenario of moving westward, sweeping across Central America and southern Mexico and unfortunately, the other scenario is towards Florida," AccuWeather hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30 but is typically most active from August to October.
The National Hurricane Center estimates that there have been 42 Category 5 hurricanes - the highest level - in the Atlantic basin since 1924, with the most recent being Hurricane Milton making landfall on the west coast of Florida.
The 2024 hurricane season alone will see three hurricanes make landfall on the west coast of Florida, USA. Of which, Hurricane Debby made landfall as a Category 1 storm at around 7:00 a.m. on August 5, 2024, near Steinhatchee in the Big Bend area of Florida.
Hurricane Helene then made landfall as a Category 4 storm at around 11:10 p.m. on September 26, about 64 km north of where Debby made landfall.
Less than two weeks after Helene devastated several states, including Florida, Hurricane Milton will appear, with a continuous intensity ranging from Category 4 to Category 5 as it approaches Florida. At around 8:30 p.m. on October 9, Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key as a Category 3 storm.
