Atlantic tropical wave’s chances of strengthening are low, forecasters say

Chris Tisch, Tampa Bay Times
·2 min read
2

Hurricane forecasters are tracking a tropical wave in the Atlantic Ocean that they say has a minimal chance of strengthening into a tropical depression by the weekend.

The tropical wave was located a few hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands on Tuesday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 8 a.m. advisory.

Forecasters say some gradual development is possible between Tuesday and Thursday, but conditions by the weekend will be less favorable for the wave to muscle up as a depression.

Forecasters give the wave only a 20 percent of strengthening into a depression by Thursday and give it only a 30 percent chance of doing so by Sunday.

The 2022 hurricane season has been off to a slow start, but forecasters still expect a busy season, with a 60 percent chance that there will be more tropical activity than normal.

About 90 percent of hurricane season activity occurs from August to October.

In all, government forecasters are predicting 14 to 20 named storms. Six to 10 of those could become hurricanes, and three to five of those could be major hurricanes.

So far, there have been three named tropical systems in 2022 — Alex, Bonnie and Colin.

Alex caused flooding in Cuba and South Florida in early June; Bonnie was the rare storm to pass over from the Atlantic to the Pacific in July; and Colin formed off South Carolina in early July.

The next named system will be called Danielle.

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