MIAMI — It’s just past the peak of hurricane season, and the tropics are teeming with activity.
Two disturbances in the Atlantic are expected to become tropical depressions or tropical storms within days, one of which is forecast to bring high surf and, potentially, tropical-storm-force winds, forecasters said.
The first of the two develop, though, will likely be the tropical wave out over the far eastern Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“There is a high chance this system will become a tropical depression, then [a] tropical storm within the next couple of days,” according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dan Kottlowski.
Invest 95L, could form into Tropical Storm Odette as it treks west-northwest across the Atlantic in the general direction of the far eastern Caribbean. But it’s too early to know where it may ultimately end up.
It was located several hundred miles south-southeast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina early Thursday. It’s expected to move north, then northwest, coming closest to the North Carolina coast by late Thursday or Friday.
Heavy rain and high surf is forecast for coastal North Carolina and areas to the north and south, stretching as far down as the north Georgia line.
If it develops into a tropical storm, it would be Peter.
An absence of significant storm-shredding wind shear and a lack of dry air are creating favorable conditions for storm development. Warm water temperatures, at 80 degrees or above, are also conducive at this time, experts said.
Meanwhile, another tropical wave is forecast to emerge in the far eastern Atlantic off Africa. It will travel west-northwest. Its odds of developing are currently low.
Just past the halfway point of the hurricane season, which runs through Nov. 30, there have been 14 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes. A 14th named storm in the Atlantic, on average, doesn’t usually form until mid-November, according to experts.
With the formation of Tropical Storm Nicholas as a short-lived hurricane this week, 2021 became only the 10th year since 1966 to have had six or more Atlantic hurricanes by Sept. 13, according to Colorado State University expert Phil Klotzbach.