Potential Tropical Storm Nadine Path, Track as It Approaches Florida

A week after Hurricane Milton tore through Florida, the National Hurricane Center is tracking another potential storm brewing in the Atlantic.

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is far from over, even as there are no active named systems. The next named storm will be Nadine. Nadine has yet to form, but the NHC is monitoring an area of disturbed weather now several hundred miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands that has a 50 percent chance of strengthening into a tropical depression in the next seven days.

Meteorologists have not published an official path for the storm since it has not yet developed, but the approximate track shows the storm, should it develop, taking aim at southeast Florida after moving through Puerto Rico.

The NHC said that as of Monday morning, the system consisted of a “well-defined area of low pressure” producing “disorganized showers and thunderstorms. “

“This system is currently embedded in a dry environment, and development is unlikely over the next couple of days,” the update said. “However, this system is forecast to move generally westward toward warmer waters, and the environmental conditions could become more favorable for gradual development by the middle to latter part of this week.”

A tropical depression could develop as the possible storm tracks west-northwestward toward the Leeward Islands later this week, the NHC said.

WFLA-TV Chief Meteorologist Jeff Berardelli told Newsweek that although there are no imminent tropical threats, weather models show “lots of tropical waves and moisture festering for the next few weeks.”

Tropical waves are areas of low pressure in the ocean. Eighty-five percent of tropical storm development originate as tropical waves, AccuWeather reported.

Berardelli said the models reveal “hints of development” in the coming 10 days.

“There will be another favorable climate pattern setting up in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

In addition to the system monitored by the NHC in the Atlantic, AccuWeather meteorologists are also monitoring a gyre—or a large system of rotating ocean currents—that could strengthen into a stronger storm in the Western Caribbean by the end of this week. The NHC has not yet begun tracking this area on its website.

AccuWeather has expressed concern over very warm ocean temperatures that could contribute to tropical storm development in the Western Caribbean. Warm water contributed to rapid strengthening for Hurricanes Helene and Milton, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Matt Benz previously told Newsweek.

“It needs to be watched, but the models are lukewarm on development,” Berardelli said about the western Caribbean system, adding that a cold front will move through Florida this week that could act “as a wall to any tropical systems that try to move north,” at least temporarily.