The ABC7 hurricane tracking team is monitoring a disturbance in the eastern side of the Atlantic that has a chance to develop into a tropical depression as it nears the Caribbean later this week.
The NHC has given the system a medium chance for tropical development over the next seven days. If the system were to become a tropical storm, it would take the name Debby.
Any development would be slow to occur, thanks to Saharan dust surrounding the disturbance over the next few days. An area of high pressure in the central Atlantic will keep the system on a west-northwesterly course, bringing it close to or over the Greater Antilles by Thursday and Friday. At this point the dry dusty air around the system will dissipate, giving the disturbance a better chance to organize.
From there, the strength of the aforementioned high-pressure area in the central Atlantic will determine whether the storm heads toward Florida and the Gulf of Mexico or turns northward over the Bahamas. Those models that show the storm taking a more northerly course tend to show a more organized system, potentially a tropical storm. In this scenario, we would see little to no impact locally.
If the storm were to take a more southerly track, it would likely remain weak and disorganized due to land interactions with Hispaniola and Cuba. Still, it would throw deep tropical moisture our way, leaving us with more widespread rain and storms this weekend and into early next week.
While at this point any significant impacts from this system appear unlikely, we cannot rule out some impacts from this system locally just yet. We'll be tracking it closely in the coming days, so stay tuned on-air and online for the latest.
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