With less than one month left in hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center said Saturday that Subtropical Storm Patty has formed over the northern Atlantic. NHC is also tracking two storms in the Caribbean, one that has a high chance of development.
As of the NHC’s 8 p.m. tropical outlook, Subtropical Storm Patty is about 110 miles west-northwest of the Azores with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph with higher gusts, moving southeast at 18 mph. Winds of 40 mph extend outward up to 205 miles from the center.
Patty is expected to pass near or over the Azores this weekend. Gradual weakening is expected during the next few days. Patty is forecast to become a post-tropical low late this weekend or Monday.
NHC is tracking a system in the southwestern Caribbean Sea with high chance of development. Gradual development of this system is expected and a tropical depression is likely to form within the next couple of days while the system moves generally northward to northwestward over the central and western Caribbean Sea. Forecasters said regardless of development, locally heavy rains are possible over portions of the adjacent land areas of the western Caribbean, including Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Cuba.
As of 8 p.m., forecasters give the system a 70% chance to develop over the next two days and 80% chance during the next week.
NHC is also tracking a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms and gusty winds extending from near Puerto Rico and Hispaniola northeastward for a few hundred miles are associated with a trough of low pressure. Slow development of this system is possible during the next couple of days while it moves westward near the Greater Antilles.
By early next week, this system is expected to be absorbed into the low pressure area over the Caribbean Sea. Regardless of development, locally heavy rains are possible during the next few days across the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, eastern Cuba and the southeastern Bahamas.
As of 8 p.m., forecasters give the system a 10% chance to develop during the next week.
The potential systems would come in the final month of the official hurricane season, which runs from June 1-Nov. 30.
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has so far seen 16 named storms, 10 of which have become hurricanes. Three of those struck Florida.