MIAMI _ Hurricane forecasters have upped the odds of a fast-moving tropical wave rolling toward the Windward Islands becoming a depression in the next day or two.
Monday afternoon, the system was located about 950 miles east, southeast of the islands and becoming better organized. The storm was headed west-northwestward at 15 to 20 mph, National Hurricane Center forecasters said.
As the storm pushes west, it will likely face mild wind shear and warm ocean water, ingredients that could help the system quickly intensify to a dangerous storm as it nears the islands. Forecasters are giving the system a 70 percent chance of becoming a depression or tropical storm in the next two days, which would give flood-prone countries including Haiti little time to prepare.
However, the wave's brisk pace could also hinder intensity, Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters noted in a Monday blog post. Masters also noted location could play a factor: the system "was too far south to be able to leverage the Earth's spin and acquire much spin of its own," he wrote.
A hurricane hunter plane is scheduled to investigate the storm Tuesday afternoon.
Even if no storm develops, forecasters warned that parts of the region, from the Windward Islands to the Lesser Antilles, could get hit with high winds and heavy rain beginning late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
"The concern right now is squally weather in the islands," said Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen.
If the system becomes a named storm, it would be the 13th this year just as the season approaches a month that has historically produced some of the fiercest storms, called Matthew.
