NHC ups Atlantic weather system chances of storm formation to 40%
Quantum Commodity Intelligence - A low-pressure weather system currently making its way across the Atlantic has been given a 40% chance of intensifying into a storm within the next five days, the US National Hurricane Center said Monday.
This is up from an earlier bulletin Monday, where the NHC said the weather system has a 30% chance of storm formation.
The system, currently classified as Invest 95L, is approximately midway between the west coast of Africa and the Lesser Antilles chain of islands that make up the eastern Caribbean.
"A broad area of low pressure associated with a tropical wave is producing a small cluster of showers and thunderstorms over the central tropical Atlantic Ocean. Some slow development is possible through the end of the week while this system moves quickly westward to west-northwestward at about 20 mph, likely reaching the Lesser
Antilles Wednesday night," the NHC said in bulletin published at 0800 EDT.
The NHC put the chances of storm formation in the next 48 hours at 20% and 40% within the next five days.
Warm waters
If 95L makes it to the warmer waters of the Caribbean and intensifies into a tropical storm, it is likely to be named Danny.
Meanwhile, storm trackers are keeping a watchful eye on another low-pressure system off West Africa, hot on the heels of 95L. Early reports suggest the tropical wave could take a more southerly track across the Atlantic than 95L, closer to the equator and over warmer waters.
If the new system becomes a 'investigative area' it is expected to be referenced 97L, with 96L currently off the US East Coast.
In May the US government agency, NOAA Climate Prediction Center, forecasted another above-normal Atlantic hurricane season in 2021.
The record 2020 hurricane season had a devastating impact on the oil and gas sector, with storms like Marco, Laura and Sally ripping through the Gulf of Mexico and making landfall along the US Gulf coast, which hosts much of the US oil and gas infrastructure.
