Third tropical wave forms in the tropics as active hurricane season continues
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A third tropical wave has now formed that could develop into a tropical storm or hurricane in the coming days.
The National Hurricane Center is now monitoring three separate systems spanning from the Caribbean Sea all the way to the west coast of Africa.
The first system has an 80 percent chance to develop into a tropical depression in the next five days. It's currently moving too quickly to organize and strengthen, but it is expected to slow down when it reaches the northwest Caribbean Sea around this weekend.
The next system, currently located about 1,000 miles east of the Windward Islands, has he best chance to become a tropical depression and will likely do it before either of the other systems. It has a 90 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression in the next two days.
If it strengthens enough to receive a name, the next on the list is Laura, and it would set a record for the earliest L-named storm. The previous record for earliest L-named storm was Luis, which formed Aug. 29, 1995.
The newest system being monitored by the National Hurricane Center has not yet even made it to sea. It's located over Guinea, Africa, and expected to move out to sea around Friday. But conditions are not conducive for this system and it only has a 20 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression.
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It's too early to tell if any of those systems will make their way to North Carolina.
The one with the best chance appears to be the second system, but models currently have it losing steam when it approaches Puerto Rico. That happens in about a week, so there's still a lot of uncertainty about the storms track and development.
The next system that forms will take on the name Laura; the system after that would be named Marco; the system after that would be Nana.
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