JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The First Coast's Most Accurate Weather Team is monitoring a disturbance in the Caribbean that could become our next named tropical system.
As of Tuesday morning, the National Hurricane Center says the system has a high chance of development in the next seven days. If it does develop and become a named storm, it would be named Sara.
The system will likely form into a tropical depression by the end of the week as it moves slowly westward into the western Caribbean Sea. It will meander over the western Caribbean Sea through the weekend, then it will move generally northward towards the Gulf early next week.
It's too early to know for sure if and when the storm will reach hurricane status after it is named. Some models, however, show it becoming a hurricane in the Caribbean by the end of the weekend.
It will likely cross over western Cuba mid-week, which was just impacted by Major Hurricane Rafael. Beyond that, it could threaten south or west Florida. It's too early to know who in the U.S. is at risk and what the impacts could be, but the Most Accurate Weather Team is watching it closely, so please check back in for updates.
For updates on this system later in the week, stay tuned to our main tropics story.