HOLT, Fla., Oct. 6, 2018—The low-pressure area monitored by the National Hurricane Center as the next named or numbered system is beginning to take on more tropical characteristics.
The associated showers and thunderstorms show signs of organization and wind circulation is gradually becoming better defined, according to the NHC.
Satellite data, surface observations and radar data from Belize indicate this area is centered over the northwestern Caribbean Sea east of northern Belize and is expected to move north into the Gulf of Mexico by early next week.
There’s a high chance—90 percent—a tropical depression forms by Sunday or Monday as the system moves slowly northward, according to the NHC.
Hurricane models are showing possible paths on a range from eastern Louisiana to the Big Bend area of Florida.
However, there’s still too much uncertainty to discuss specific impacts to the local area at this time, according to the National Weather Service in Mobile.
This would make storm number 14 of the 2018 hurricane season should it become a tropical depression, or it could skip the depression stage and become Tropical Storm Michael.
