The National Hurricane Center said it was monitoring a low pressure system located near the coast of the western Florida Panhandle on Wednesday morning. The system, remnants of Hurricane Isaac, has a 20 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours.
According to the Miami-based center, the system is moving southward into the north-central Gulf of Mexico and there may be some gradual development as it moves at 5 to 10 mph over the next few days.
Elsewhere on the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Leslie is becoming better organized and is expected to become a hurricane later today, the center stated. Traveling north at 2 mph with maximum sustained winds of nearly 70 mph, Leslie is not expected to make landfall in the U.S.
The NHC warned that swells generated by Leslie will affect Bermuda, the East Coast from Central Florida northward, the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands for the next several days. The swells could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, the center said.
Further east, Tropical Storm Michael could also reach hurricane status by Friday, the center announced. The storm, which has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and is moving towards the northeast at 6 mph, is not expected to affect land.
The National Hurricane Center will release its next advisories at 2 p.m. EST and 5 p.m. EST.
Project Path Map for Tropical Storm Leslie:
Projected Path Map for Tropical Storm Michael: