FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ We've reached the statistical peak of the hurricane season, with Tuesday marking the day a tropical cyclone was most likely to be in the Atlantic. And there has been no shortage of activity _ with the presence of Tropical Storm Gabrielle and a few other systems.
The regenerated Tropical Storm Gabrielle was spinning far out in the Atlantic, more than 1,000 miles west of the Azores, zipping northward at about 21 mph on Monday. But Gabrielle, weakening over cooler waters, was expected to diminish as the week goes on.
Closer to South Florida, but still far away in the eastern Atlantic, was a system of disorganized clouds and showers that were moving west-northwest in the general direction of the Bahamas. This so-called Disturbance 2 was being met by strong upper-level winds, which were expected to inhibit its development over the next couple of days.
"Environmental conditions could become a little more conducive for development when the disturbance moves near the northwestern Bahamas, south Florida and over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico late this week," said a tropical weather outlook issued by the National Hurricane Center at 2 p.m. EDT Monday.
The system was given no chance of developing over the next two days and a 20% chance of developing over the next five days.
Development can take the form of a tropical depression, tropical storm, or hurricane. The next cyclone that attains at least tropical storm status will be named Humberto.
No matter what happens to this system, it's likely to bring some tropical moisture, and higher rain chances, into South Florida's atmosphere into and through the coming weekend.
Farther east in the Atlantic was a tropical wave just a few hundred miles off the coast of Africa. This system of disorganized showers and thunderstorms, Disturbance 1, was being given a 20% chance of developing over the next two days and a 30% chance of development over the next five days.
The entire Atlantic hurricane season goes from June 1 until Nov. 30.
