ORLANDO, Fla. _ People may be hanging Christmas lights already, but the National Hurricane Center has a vivid reminder that we still need to keep an eye on what's brewing in the tropics. What the center describes as "a vigorous tropical wave" has an 80 percent chance of developing into a tropical disturbance in the next five days _ a slight downgrade from earlier predictions.
The chance of development is 50 percent over the next 48 hours.
The disturbance is located about 200 miles east of the Leeward Islands, according to the hurricane center's 1 p.m. Monday update.
"Although environmental conditions are forecast to gradually become more conducive for a tropical depression to form during the next few days, interaction with land could inhibit tropical cyclone formation," the center said.
The patch of worrisome weather is forecast to move westward to west-northwestward for the next few days, passing near the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and the southeastern Bahamas.
If this were to become a named storm, it would be called Patty.
The Atlantic hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
