ORLANDO, Fla. - Tropical Storm Humberto will be the next named storm, and it could form from a tropical wave that is approaching the Caribbean in the next five days.
The system, now located about 100 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands, is projected to be about 400 miles off the Leeward Islands in five days, which was a little closer than Hurricane Dorian when it became a tropical depression. The National Hurricane Center said the topical wave is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms.
"Gradual development of this system is possible and a tropical depression could form by the middle of next week while the system moves westward across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic Ocean," the NHC said in its 8 a.m. EDT advisory.
It puts the chances that the 9th tropical depression of the Atlantic hurricane season will form at 10% in the next 48 hours and 60% in the next five days.
The NHC stopped tracking a second system that had been brewing closer to the Caribbean, so now the tropical outlook includes this potential system, Hurricane Dorian located off the U.S. East Coast and Tropical Storm Gabrielle spinning about 1,000 miles west-southwest of the Azores, but not expected to threaten land.
The potential tropical system, if it grows into a depression and maintains sustained winds of at least 39 mph, it would become Tropical Storm Humberto.
Hurricane Dorian grew into depression strength about 800 miles east of the Leeward Islands back on Aug. 24. It then passed over the U.S. Virgin Islands as a tropical storm on Aug. 28 and took aim at The Bahamas growing into a powerful Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph sustained winds that left at least 30 dead in the Bahamas as it passed over Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Island last Sunday-Tuesday.
The storm has since skirted Florida's coast, then headed up the East Coast spawning tornadoes and making landfall again over the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane on Friday.
Dorian arrived Saturday on Canada's Atlantic coast with heavy rain and winds equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane.
Winds that reached 100 mph toppled a construction crane in Halifax and knocked out power for more than 300,000 people.
Hurricane season typically peaks between mid-August and late October.
In 2004, Florida saw four hurricanes strike between August and September when Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne pummeled the state in short order.