Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
System possibly developing into storm
A large cluster of rainstorms and clouds a couple hundred miles east of the Caribbean Sea has a decreased chance of developing into a late-season tropical system, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Historically, tropical cyclones are not as likely to form in November as they are in the early months of hurricane season, but it still happens. The official Atlantic hurricane season goes from June 1 to Nov. 30.
If this system becomes a named storm, it would be Tropical Storm Patty.
But that possibility is less and less likely, forecasters said Monday in a 7 p.m. storm advisory.
“This system has not become any better organized over the past 24 hours, and environmental conditions may not become as conducive as previously anticipated,” the advisory said.
Also, a cold front is expected to act as a buffer for the United States and steer the system toward the northeast and away from land, according to The Weather Channel.
The large swatch of rough weather about 200 miles east of the eastern rim of the Caribbean Sea has a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression over the next five days, down from an 80 percent chance earlier in afternoon on Monday. A depres-
sion is the weakest grade of tropical cyclone, with the next strongest being tropical storms and then hurricanes.
Upper-level winds were predicted to deteriorate the large area of rough weather currently located “over much of the western tropical Atlantic Ocean,” according to the center’s forecasters.
“The potential for this system to become a tropical or subtropical cyclone has decreased,” according to the evening advisory.
Initial track forecasts show the disturbance moving in a west to northwest direction toward Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and the southeastern Bahamas.
Whether it develops into something stronger or not, the system is on course to bring heavy rains for the next few days to the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.