Forecasters are warning a new tropical depression that formed Friday in the central Atlantic has the potential for explosive intensification that will make it a major hurricane this week, becoming the latest intense storm as New England and Novia Scotia are barely recovering from Lee’s impact over the weekend.
As Forbes reports, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded a disturbance to Tropical Depression 15 late Friday morning, projecting the system will gradually strengthen over the weekend before swiftly intensifying early next week as it moves over an area of “near record warm sea-surface temperatures.”
The forecast calls for the storm to reach major hurricane status—Category 3 or higher—by Tuesday, with maximum sustained winds projected to reach 120 mph, though the National Hurricane Center cautioned: “the official forecast could be conservative.”
The system is moving northwest on a path toward Bermuda at a speed of 12 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph as of late Friday morning, though forecasters believe it will become Tropical Storm Nigel in the coming hours and develop into a hurricane by Sunday night.
Tropical Depression 15 is one of three tropical systems forecasters are tracking in the Atlantic, along with Tropical Storm Margot, which weakened from a hurricane Friday morning as it moved into a remote section of the north Atlantic, and Hurricane Lee, which also underwent a period of rapid intensification into a Category 5 major hurricane before gradually weakening to a Category 1 storm, with winds maximum sustained winds at 80 mph as of Friday afternoon.
The system’s eventual fate is currently unknown, though it’s expected to move in the general direction of Bermuda during the next few days. In the meantime, it is not expected to impact any land.
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