Invest 92L has a good chance becoming a depression this week

This tropical wave in the central Atlantic, now deemed Invest 92L, has a high chance to develop this week. The odds are up to 80% in the next 7 days and 40% in the next 2 days.

The disturbance is still battling dust and wind shear as it tries to get organized. It is moving west-northwest through the tropical Atlantic.

The system will start to tap into more favorable conditions to develop as it moves away from Saharan dust and into warmer waters.

This will likely become a depression around the middle to end of this week. If sustained winds reach 40 mph, this would become the 7th named storm of the season – Tropical Storm Gabrielle.

The main steering will be the Bermuda High and a break in the ridge looks likely to curve the system north. Many models are trending with this happening near/north of the islands and staying well east of Florida and the U.S.

If this forms, it has a good chance becoming a fish storm and staying out to sea. Impacts to Bermuda and/or Caribbean Islands could still happen in that scenario. There’s also the possibility of seeing a track similar to Hurricane Erin with no direct hit.

For now, this tropical wave is not a worry for the Continental U.S. but we will watch the trends evolve as the system gets better organized.

Tropics on snooze at the official peak of hurricane season

September 10 is the statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. While it’s unusual to have no named storms across the basin, we’ll enjoy the calm stretch.

There are no areas of interest in the Atlantic and signs point for that to continue through the next week or so.

Each season is unique and this one is living up to the title. It’s the first season since 2008 without a single area of interest or named storm on September 10.

There’s still about 58% of the season ahead of us so we will we watch things closely.

Here’s where we stand so far this season: 6 named storms and 1 hurricane. Hurricane Erin is the only tropical Atlantic storm and it became a Category 5 just north of the Caribbean.