Tropics Watch: NHC monitoring system for subtropical development

Jonathan Kegges, Meteorologist

ORLANDO, Fla. – The National Hurricane Center continues to highlight a large area of low pressure near the Azores for subtropical development.

The complex system is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms with strong winds as it meanders through the northeast Atlantic Ocean. The system could acquire subtropical characteristics during the next two days.

A subtropical storm is a storm that gets its strength from both differences in temperature and pressure along with warm ocean water. For a storm to become completely tropical, all of its strength will come from the warm ocean water and the storm will produce and maintain thunderstorms around its well-defined center.

Beyond that timeframe, the system will drift into much cooler waters which will end the chance for subtropical development.

The next named storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season is Bret.

The rest of the Atlantic basin is quiet with Saharan dust dominating the main development region.

ORLANDO, Fla.