There are signs Atlantic hurricane season is slowly awakening as forecasters monitor two systems with some potential to develop into tropical storms. The season is off to a slow start but forecasters predict it couldin Florida in recent days. It has a low chance to become a tropical storm as it moves north and northeast offshore the East Coast this weekend.The southern Gulf of Mexico — near the Yucatán Peninsula — holds the most potential for a tropical storm to form.
Weather models indicate conditions will gradually become more favorable for the system to intensify and the Hurricane Center gives it aStrong high pressure over the United States should tend to limit how far north the storm will make it, but locations from the Veracruz region of the Mexico coast to as far north as South Texas should monitor. With the storm yet to develop, much uncertainty remains, but unusually warm water could help fuel development.
Water temperatures over much of the Gulf of Mexico have risen to the mid-80s, and parts of it are as warm as 90 degrees.