Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday they are monitoring a system in the Caribbean that could strengthen into Hurricane Sara next week.
The hurricane center said in an advisory Wednesday morning that a “broad area of low pressure” in the central Caribbean Sea continues to produce “a large area of showers and thunderstorms” and that environmental conditions appear conducive to further development. The system was designated as Invest 99L by the hurricane center Tuesday afternoon.
“A tropical depression is likely to form in the coming days as the system slowly moves westward into the western Caribbean Sea,” the NHC said Wednesday. “Thereafter, further development is likely as the disturbance meanders over the Western Caribbean Sea through the weekend.”
Forecasters said the system is expected to slowly turn northwest by early next week and interests in the western and northwest Caribbean Sea should monitor this system’s progress.
“Regardless of how the situation develops, heavy rain is expected over Jamaica over the next few days,” the hurricane center said Wednesday.
The National Hurricane Center said Wednesday it continues to track a system in the Caribbean that could strengthen into Hurricane Sara by next week.
Will Hurricane Sara impact the United States?
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said Wednesday morning that at least one scenario involves a hurricane heading toward Florida next week.
“Wind shear remains low over much of the Caribbean and waters are very warm (in the 80s F),” AccuWeather chief meteorologist Bernie Rayno said Wednesday. “And now, with showers and thunderstorms starting to gather, it probably won’t be long before the tropical rain storm continues to organize into a tropical storm.”
“There are multiple scenarios with this feature in the Caribbean that are related to the speed of development and early monitoring and that could affect land areas with landfall and direct impacts later,” lead expert Alex DaSilva said Wednesday. information from AccuWeather. “Not only does it have a high chance of becoming a hurricane, but it could become a major hurricane very quickly.”
If a tropical storm or hurricane forms in the western Caribbean, its track will likely be heavily influenced by the position of a dome of high pressure along the southern Atlantic coast of the United States.
AccuWeather meteorologists said interests in Central America, from Nicaragua to Belize, southeastern Mexico, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Florida and the Bahamas, are “strongly recommended” to monitor the progress of this system.
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Invest the AL99 path tracker
Invest in 99L spaghetti models
The illustrations include a range of forecasting tools and models, and not all are equal. The hurricane center uses only the four or five best-performing models to help it make its forecasts.
Gabe Hauari is a national news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Storm Tracking: See the Path, Spaghetti Models for Potential Hurricane Sara
