ORLANDO, Fla. – We’re just four days past the peak of hurricane season, so it’s not surprising that the tropics are very active.
Nicholas made landfall as a hurricane early Tuesday morning near Sargent Beach, Texas, with winds up to 75 mph.
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As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Nicholas was downgraded to a tropical depression and was 15 miles west-northwest of Port Arthur, moving east-northeast at 6 mph with sustained winds of 35 mph.
The storm should move more slowly toward the east-northeast, and then turn east on Wednesday over Louisiana. Little motion is anticipated on Thursday.
[RELATED: List of names for 2021 hurricane season]
Meantime, a tropical wave accompanied by a well-defined low pressure system is located about 400 miles southeast of the southern Cabo Verde Islands.
A tropical depression will likely form during the next couple of days while the system moves generally west at about 15 mph across the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean.
The National Hurricane Center says the system has a 80% chance of tropical development over the next two days and a 90% chance over the next five days.
Currently, computer models show the disturbance tracking west for days before possibly turning north. It’s too early to tell, however, the exact path of the system.
Elsewhere, an area of low pressure is expected to form during the next day or two a couple of hundred miles north of the southeastern or central Bahamas as a tropical wave interacts with an upper-level trough.
Some gradual development of this system is forecast thereafter, and a tropical depression could form later this week while the system moves north-northwest or north across the western Atlantic.
The NHC says the system has a 70% chance of development over the next five days.
The next named storms will be called Odette, Peter and Rose.