Watching The Tropics – Tropical System Could Be In The Gulf This Weekend

The National Hurricane Center has upped the probability that an area of disturbed weather in the Caribbean Sea could become a tropical cyclone. As early as today there could be a tropical depression located just east of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Hurricane forecasters are giving the system a 70% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone within the next 5 days.

The forecast models disagree greatly on where this system might eventually track this weekend and early next week. The current outlook for the Gulf of Mexico suggests that conditions for strengthening would be favorable in the next three to five days.

There is also another tropical cyclone in the far east Atlantic Ocean this morning. Tropical Depression #5 is currently forecast to track slowly toward the west over the next several days. Any interaction with landfall for this system would be at least five, if not more, days away.

In case you are wondering the next two names up on the tropical storm list are Erin and Fernand. There is a very real possibility that both of these systems will become named storms over the next few days.