Early tropical system likely to spare Florida

The 2020 hurricane season should get an early start this weekend, forecasters said, as a tropical or subtropical storm is likely to form near Florida and the Bahamas.

While the system should not have any direct impact on the southeast coast of the U.S., Florida will see rough beach conditions and increasing rain chances this week before the storm forms Thursday into Friday, weather.com said.

As of midday Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said there was a 70% chance of tropical development within the next five days. “A broad area of low pressure is expected to develop late this week or early this weekend near or within a couple of hundred miles north of the Bahamas,” the hurricane center said.

A subtropical depression or storm is likely to form this weekend while it moves northeastward over the western Atlantic, the hurricane center predicted.

If the system gets a name, it would be Tropical (or Subtropical) Storm Arthur. Subtropical storms are those that have characteristics of both tropical and non-tropical weather systems. Storms get a name when their winds reach 39 mph.

The system is forecast to remain well off the southeast coast and track farther out to sea. But dangerous waves and life-threatening rip currents will be possible along Florida beaches leading up to the storm, the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida, warned.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1.