As Tropical Storm Melissa speeds away from the East Coast of the U.S. where it will soon dissipate, a disturbance that has just pushed off the coast of Africa is expected to become a tropical depression, the National Hurricane Center said Monday.
Still more than 3,000 miles away from South Florida, the large low pressure system is moving slowly toward the northwest.
“Environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for a tropical depression to form during the next day or so while the disturbance moves west-northwestward to northwestward near the Cabo Verde Islands,” the hurricane center said in its Tropical Weather Outlook.
The system is being given an 80% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone during the next five days.
Two other systems in the tropics are also being monitored.
One is in the southwestern Caribbean near the Gulf of Honduras and Central America. This system of disorganized showers is expected to move toward the northwest across Honduras, southern Belize and northern Guatemala. Though it has only a low chance of becoming a tropical cyclone, it’s expected to bring heavy rains and the risk of mountain landslides over portions of Central America this week.
The other system is a tropical wave in the Central Atlantic that is expected to run into upper-level winds by Wednesday that will be “quite hostile” to further development, according to forecasters.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Melissa, which brought large waves, rip currents and generally bad weather to parts of the northern U.S. and Canada is moving out to sea and will soon dissipate.
On Monday, Melissa was about 400 miles south of Cape Race, Newfoundland with maximum winds of 40 mph and was speeding toward the northeast at 20 mph.
“Weakening is expected, and Melissa is forecast to become a post-tropical remnant low later today and dissipate in a day or so,” the hurricane center said on Monday.
