TAMPA, Fla. (News Nation/WFLA) — Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday and is forecast to become a tropical storm that could impact Florida.
Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine is an area of low pressure that forecasters have been monitoring for several days. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) started issuing advisories for it Tuesday morning.
According to the NHC, the system is expected to strengthen and become a tropical storm later this week. The next named storm will be Isaias.
The forecast track shows the system could eventually impact Florida.
“It’s just [shows] how fast this hurricane season has ramped up,” said News Nation Chief Meteorologist Albert Ramon. “Last week, Hanna was the earliest ‘H’ storm — the earliest H-named storm of the season that we’ve had on record. Before that, it was Harvey in 2005. And 2005 is kind of the hurricane season of record with just how destructive and busy it was. And this isn’t Isaias yet, but it looks like it’s going to be later this week.”
A 5 p.m. ET update from the NHC said the system is about 435 miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph.
The NHC says the system is expected to move through the Leeward Islands by Wednesday. The forecast track shows the storm near or over the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Wednesday night before moving near or over the Caribbean island of Hispaniola on Thursday.
A tropical storm warning has been issued in Puerto Rico, Vieques, Culebra, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Martin, Saba, St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Dominica and parts of the Dominican Republic.