ORLANDO, Fla. – Fall has arrived, bringing slightly cooler temperatures and lower rain chances to Central Florida, but all eyes are still on the tropics.
Hurricane season runs through November, so there’s still a long way to go, and yet another tropical storm has formed.
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Tropical Storm Sam formed Thursday morning and is forecast to strengthen into a major Category 3 hurricane in the coming days before moving just north of the Lesser Antilles sometime next week.
Sam was about 1,600 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands, moving west at 15 mph with sustained winds of 70 mph.
Most computer models show the system trekking generally west before taking a turn to the north and possibly avoiding Florida, but its exact path is unclear.
Here is the 11 p.m. advisory and forecast track from the National Hurricane Center. pic.twitter.com/1Ok8eTLrIc
— Tom Sorrells (@tomsorrells) September 24, 2021
Elsewhere, a gale-force, non-tropical low pressure system, the remnants of Odette, is about 600 miles west-northwest of the westernmost Azores.
Showers and thunderstorms have increased a little near the low, and it could become a subtropical or tropical cyclone while it moves generally south over marginally warmer waters during the next day or so.
Strong upper-level winds are expected to develop over the system this weekend, which should limit its development.
It has a 60% chance of developing, but it won’t impact Florida. Along with this area, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring two other disturbances: An area of showers and thunderstorms a few hundred miles southeast of Bermuda and another expected to move off the west coast of Africa. These disturbances have a 10% and 0% chance, respectively, of development in the next two days.
[RELATED: List of names for 2021 hurricane season]
The next named storms will be called Teresa and Victor.