New tropical system likely to join Humberto in Atlantic

Forecasters continued to closely monitor a tropical disturbance over the open Atlantic Monday. The system, dubbed 97L, first caught the eye of meteorologists late last week and they caution that further development is expected. AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said the system bears watching for progression to a tropical depression and perhaps even the ninth named storm of the Atlantic season."We expect this feature to become a tropical depression and [it] may go on to become Tropical Storm Imelda later this week," according to Kottlowski."The evolving tropical feature is projected to pass just east and north of the Leeward Islands on Friday," he added.As of 2 p.m. EDT Monday, the National Hurricane Center said the system was located about 1,200 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and has about a 90% chance of development over the next five days. This image, taken during Monday midday, Sept. 16, 2019, shows part of the tropical Atlantic Basin. Africa can be seen to the right and South America is visible to the lower left. The feature of interest is a patch of clouds in the middle and slightly closer to South America than Africa. (NOAA/GOES-East) "Early indications suggest this feature will track east of the United States mainland, but it is way too early to say with confidence as to exactly where it will track beyond Friday," Kottlowski said. Interests over the Leeward Islands should monitor the progress of this feature for an uptick in showers and thunderstorms late this week.As the track is uncertain, other areas of the Caribbean and Bahamas should watch this system as it evolves.Meanwhile, a tropical wave will cause some showers and thunderstorms over the Leeward and Windward islands into Tuesday.Hurricane Humberto is forecast to pass close to Bermuda during the middle of this week as a Category 2 or Category 3 hurricane.Swells propagating southward from this distant hurricane can reach unprotected northern shores of the northern Caribbean islands in the form of large waves and strong rip currents this week.