Caribbean system still brewing with tropical potential, hurricane center says

The National Hurricane Center continues to keep track of a system that could develop in the Caribbean and become the season’s next tropical depression or storm.

As of the hurricane center’s 8 p.m. tropical outlook, it said a broad area of low pressure is likely to develop over the southwestern Caribbean Sea by the end of the week.

“Gradual development is possible thereafter, and a tropical depression could form over the weekend or early next week while the system drifts generally northward or northwestward over the central or western Caribbean Sea,” forecasters said.

The center gives it a 40% chance to develop in the next seven days, the same percentage forecast on Monday and Tuesday, but up from the weekend.

If it were to gain enough steam, it could become Tropical Storm Patty.

The potential system would come in the final month of the official hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has so far seen 15 named storms, 10 of which have become hurricanes and three of which have struck Florida.

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