BREAKING NEWS: The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has begun posting advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine, which will likely become Tropical Storm Helene later today or tonight.
Big Picture: Tropical Storm Helene will likely form in the NW
Caribbean later today or tonight, then strengthen to a hurricane as it approaches an area from the Florida Panhandle through West Central Florida on Thursday. Helene could intensify to a category 2 or 3 hurricane that will likely produce a large wind field, and inflict wind, storm surge and rainfall impacts to a broad area of
Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
In Detail:
1. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts an area of disorganized thunderstorms to become better organized and form a center of circulation in the
NW Caribbean Sea later today or tonight. The storm would likely be named Helene, and is forecast to track through the Yucatan Channel, then become a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters are closely monitoring a rapidly developing weather system in the northwestern Caribbean Sea that is expected to become Tropical Storm Helene later today or tonight, with the potential to strengthen into a significant hurricane before reaching Florida later this week.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has officially begun issuing advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine, signaling growing confidence that the disturbance will soon organize into a named storm. Meteorologists warn that once Helene forms, environmental conditions appear favorable for rapid strengthening as it moves northward toward the Gulf of Mexico.