Center keeps eye on Gulf rainstorms

A proliferation of thunderstorms and showers along the northern U.S. Gulf Coast has been given a slight chance of becoming a tropical cyclone over the next five days, the National Hurricane Center says.

The potential system was forecast to move across the area of northern Florida and Georgia and into the Atlantic Ocean over the next few days. Early predictions suggest it could then travel along the Carolinas.

It had a 20% chance of developing over the next two days as it moves inland and over the top of Florida and a 40% chance of developing over the next five days, after the system emerges in the Atlantic, where environmental conditions are more friendly to tropical development.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic tropics, Tropical Depression Five was about 345 miles northeast of Bermuda and moving to the northeast away from the island. The depression, which had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, could become a tropical storm in the next day or so.

If Tropical Depression Five

were to become the next tropical storm, it would be named Edouard.

The Atlantic hurricane season, which goes until Nov. 30, is expected to be a busy one in 2020, with several hurricane-watching organizations including the U.S. government and others including Colorado State University and AccuWeather predicting a busier than average 2020 season.

This year’s hurricane season got off to a busy start, with two tropical storms,

Arthur and Bertha, forming before the official June 1 start of the season, and a third, Cristobal, forming on June 2.

Tropical Storm Dolly formed on June 23 in the north Atlantic before weakening to a tropical depression and then dissipating the next day.