A tropical disturbance brewing in the Caribbean and potentially eyeing Florida has now been designated as Invest 97L by the National Hurricane Center.
MIAMI – A tropical disturbance brewing in the Caribbean and potentially eyeing Florida has now been designated as Invest 97L by the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Designating a storm as an “invest” means there is an area of disturbed weather that the NHC wants to investigate more closely, allowing for more comprehensive computer modeling to be performed as it nears the U.S.
However, the details of its potential impacts on the U.S. remain murky, the FOX Forecast Center said.
The system may or may not organize into a tropical depression, perhaps even a tropical storm, late in the weekend or early next week as it slides into the Gulf of Mexico.
Where is Invest 97L?
According to the NHC, the well-defined tropical wave is producing a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms over Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the northern Leeward Islands and the adjacent waters of the southwestern Atlantic and northeastern Caribbean Sea.
“Development of this system is unlikely during the next couple of days while it moves west-northwestward over portions of the Greater Antilles,” NHC said in its latest outlook. “However, environmental conditions are forecast to be more conducive for development after the wave passes the Greater Antilles, and a tropical depression could form this weekend or early next week over the eastern Gulf of Mexico or far southwestern Atlantic Ocean, including in the vicinity of Florida.”
Interests across the Greater Antilles, Bahamas and Florida should continue to monitor the progress of this system, the NHC notes.
The disturbance has medium odds of development within a week.
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The latest model projections indicate that the storm will move in the general direction of Florida and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, though uncertainty remains.
Since the storm could develop quickly and close to Florida, there would be little time to prepare.
“Your prep time is going to be about 24 hours, if that,” said FOX Weather Meteorologist Britta Merwin if the storm does develop near Florida. “We could see this pull together when we already have rain moving on land. If this does develop, everything’s going to happen very quickly. So you need to make sure that you’re thinking about that and preparing you and your family for that potential.”
If the system strengthens into a tropical storm, it will be named Debby – the fourth named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. But named storm or not, the system is promising heavy rains for Florida, especially the Gulf Coast side.
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“Florida will have heavy rain no matter what happens from this, so you need to at least be prepared for that,” Merwin said. “So Saturday, Sunday and Monday, we know we’re going to have heavy rain across Florida, and flooding is a potential.”