FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ The National Hurricane Center is monitoring a tropical disturbance in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico that has a 10% chance of developing over the next five days.
As of a forecast outlook issued by the National Hurricane Center at 2 p.m. Wednesday, it was a disorganized mass of clouds and showers.
A broad area of low pressure was expected to approach the boundaries of the stormy weather by Wednesday night and could cause gradual development within the next couple of days, forecasters said.
But there were conditions working against it, like dry air and storm-killing winds in the upper atmosphere, which accounts for the low 10% likelihood of development.
The system is expected to meander over the northwestern Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.
A tropical cyclone is a storm system rotating around a center of low pressure. Tropical cyclones are classified by their wind speed from tropical depression to tropical storm to hurricane.
If the system reaches tropical storm strength it would have sustained wind speeds from 39 to 73 mph. Hurricanes have sustained wind speeds of 74 mph and higher.
The next named storm would be Chantal.
