New tropical feature of interest being monitored in far eastern Atlantic

By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

While an area of disturbed weather off the coast of the southeastern United States is not likely to become a powerful tropical storm, a robust tropical disturbance over the central Atlantic may be a concern for the northeastern Caribbean islands during the first full week of August.

The Cabo Verde portion of the Atlantic hurricane season typically ramps up in August.

While weak tropical disturbances, called tropical waves, have been moving westward from Africa all summer, this is the time of the year when conditions become more conducive for development of these disturbances to tropical storms and hurricanes.

Hurricane season peaks in the middle of September.

The feature of interest was located near 30 degrees west longitude, or several hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands, as of Wednesday morning.

This image of the west-central Atlantic Ocean taken on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, shows a poorly defined swirl of clouds associated with showers and thunderstorms. Africa appears to the right of the image. (NOAA / GOES Satellite)

"While there are some dust and dry air near this feature now, decreasing amounts of dry and dusty air and more favorable upper-level winds will support future organization of this wave this weekend," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Max Vido.

This feature has a 50/50 chance of becoming a tropical depressionfrom late this week through this weekend to the east of the Windward and Leeward Islands.

"The general track of this disturbance will largely be governed by the flow of air around a large area of high pressure over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean," Vido said.

The exact track of the feature may not be known until a defined center forms.

The clockwise flow around the high is likely to guide the feature toward the general direction of the Leeward Islands early next week, then near the islands of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos toward the middle of next week.

RELATED: 
AccuWeather's 2019 US fall forecast 
Downpours to escalate in southeastern US, increase risk of flash flooding 
6 injured by lightning strike in Florida 
Erick, Flossie to bring glancing blows to Hawaiian islands

Regardless of development or not, an uptick in shower and thunderstorm activity with locally rough seas and surf can occur as the feature moves through. Whether or not conditions become severe will depend on organization and strength of the feature as it passes by.

It is far too early to say whether or not this next disturbance will reach the Bahamas or the United States. However, even if the system were to remain offshore, a period of rough surf may develop along the Atlantic coast later next week.

People living in or traveling to these areas by aircraft or cruises should monitor this situation.

Download the free AccuWeather app to keep track of the latest tropical activity. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.