The most recent weather updates show Forecasters are monitoring two areas of disturbed weather; a tropical wave midway between the Atlantic and the Lesser Antilles and the second just off the coast of Africa.
Disturbance 1 is located along 20W, or about 300 miles east of the Cabo Verde Islands. The system is moving to the west near 10mph. Conditions may become more favorable for development as the system approaches the northern leeward Islands in about a week.
There remains a 20 percent chance of tropical development in five days.A disturbance has formed along 44W, or about 1075 miles ESE of Barbados. It is moving to the west near 12 mph. This will take the system into the Windward Islands by early next week.
The disturbance consists of a large area of disorganized showers and storms. Environmental conditions are marginal for development. There is a 20 percent chance of development within the next 7 days.The DDM will continue to monitor the systems and provide updates accordingly.
Additionally, Hurricane Laura, weakening from a Category 5 to a Category 2 storm hours after barreling ashore near the Texas-Louisiana border, but continued to threaten what forecasters described as lethal flooding and widespread wind damage.
Laura made landfall overnight as a storm of historic proportions, with wind speeds of 150 miles an hour, according to the National Hurricane Center, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005. By early Thursday morning, the winds had weakened to 110 miles an hour.
The eye was about 45 miles northwest of Lake Charles, La., and moving northwards at a speed of about 15 miles an hour, the center said.
Hurricane-force winds extended outward for 60 miles, and storm surges could be unsurvivable, the center said. While the western Gulf Coast is less densely populated than the New Orleans area, Laura, like Katrina, made landfall in the dead of night, complicating any last-minute evacuation or rescue efforts.
Laura was expected to produce waves as high as 20 feet along portions of the Louisiana coast, with as much as 18 inches of rainfall. Lake Charles braced for as much as 15 feet of flooding, far more than the 8 feet that constitute a major flood in a low-lying area.