NHC Monitoring Two Storms in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico this Week

Less than three weeks into the “official” start of hurricane season (June 1), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) is monitoring two storm systems that could have some impact on travel in Mexico and the southeast U.S. this week.

The first is in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico and the southern Gulf of Mexico. The NHC says that “a broad area of low pressure is forecast to form from this system” later Monday or Monday night and that a “tropical depression or a tropical storm likely to follow by midweek.”

The storm is the more likely of the two to develop. It is expected to bring heavy rain to portions of southern Mexico and Central America, along with “heavy rainfall” over the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico by midweek.

“Regardless of development, several days of heavy rainfall are expected across portions of southern Mexico and Central America, and these rains are likely to cause life-threatening flooding and flash flooding,” the NHC said on Monday morning.

The second is a low-pressure system in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, a system that is less likely to form a major storm but could impact travel along the coast of the southeast U.S. later in the week. The NHC says that this second system is forecast to form the central Bahamas in a day or two and could then approach the coast of the southeast U.S. on Thursday or Friday.

The NHC is giving the second storm a 30% chance of formation over the next week.

The storms are some of the first of 2024’s hurricane season, one that is expected to be more active than normal. None of the more than 20 private, public, and government agencies that predict the hurricane season are anticipating a lower-than-normal season, and just one of the 20-plus is predicting an entirely normal season.