As the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins, the National Hurricane Center is highlighting two areas of interest, one likely to become the season's first tropical depression.
"A large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms located over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and Yucatan Peninsula is associated with a broad area of low pressure," said the NHC Wednesday. "Environmental conditions appear conducive for gradual development, and this system is likely to become a tropical depression while it moves northeastward over the northwestern Caribbean Sea and southeastern Gulf of Mexico during the next couple of days. Regardless of development, locally heavy rainfall is likely across portions of southeastern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Belize during the next day or so, spreading across western Cuba, South Florida, and the Florida Keys on Friday and Saturday."
Photo: Rainfall amounts from NOAA's Weather Prediction Center through next Wednesday.
Forecasters are also watching an area in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean.
"A weak surface trough located around 200 miles northeast of the central Bahamas is producing disorganized shower activity as it interacts with an upper-level trough," the NHC noted. "Surface pressures are currently high across the area, and significant development of this system appears unlikely as it moves generally east-northeastward over the next several days away from the southeastern United States."
It does not appear that either system will be a threat to Louisiana and the northern Gulf Coast.
The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season runs through the end of November. Forecasts have called for an above-average season.