ORLANDO, Fla. _ Hurricane center forecasters are keeping an eye on an area of disturbed weather that should move into the Gulf of Mexico this coming week and has a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm in the next five days.
In its Friday morning advisory, the National Hurricane Center said showers and thunderstorms with the weather system near Nicaragua and Honduras have become more concentrated in the past several hours.
"Although strong winds aloft are located just to the north of this system, the upper-level environment is expected to be conducive enough to allow slow development, and a tropical depression could form by late this weekend or early next week over the northwestern Caribbean Sea or southern Gulf of Mexico while the system moves slowly northwestward," forecasters said.
The system has a 30 percent _ or low _ chance of tropical formation in the next 48 hours, but the odds increase to 60 percent _ or medium _ in the next five days.
"Regardless of tropical cyclone formation, this disturbance will continue to bring torrential rains primarily to portions of Central America and the Yucatan peninsula during the next few days," the hurricane center said.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Leslie continues to churn in the mid-Atlantic _ and even though it is no threat to land, it will impact the U.S. coast this weekend.
"Large swells generated by Leslie are expected to continue during the next few days across the southeastern coast of the United States, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Greater and Lesser Antilles," the hurricane center said. "These swells will also increase near the coasts of New England and Atlantic Canada later today. Please consult products from your local weather office as these conditions could cause life- threatening surf and rip currents."
At 11 a.m. EDT on Friday, Leslie was packing 65 mph winds and moving north-northwest at 9 mph. It was located about 455 miles northeast of Bermuda.
The historical "peak" or hurricane season was on Sept. 10. Once we get to October, historically the tropics tend to start settling down, with a big drop in activity forecast by the end of October.
Hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.
