Hurricane Center: Tropical depression forecast to form and move into Gulf of Mexico this week | Hurricane Center

Four tropical systems in the Atlantic Basin have the National Hurricane Center’s attention, including a tropical wave in the Caribbean Sea that’s forecast to become a tropical depression in the next day or two and emerge in the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said in a Sunday morning update.

Update: Advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone No. 26 have started. Forecast track brings the system toward Louisiana as a hurricane.

The wave in the Caribbean is located a couple of hundred miles southeast of Jamaica, and “the associated shower and thunderstorm activity is beginning to show some signs of organization,” the NHC said.

Environmental conditions needed to support tropical development are expected to be favorable for the wave to develop into a tropical depression by Tuesday. 

According to the NHC, the system will move west-northwest at about 10-15 mph across the central and western Caribbean on Sunday through Tuesday and then move into the southern or southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday night or Wednesday.

The chances for the wave to develop into a depression in 48 hours is 70%. Those chances, according to the NHC forecast, increase to 80% after 48 hours.

The NHC highlighted an area hatched in red that indicates where the Caribbean wave might become a tropical depression, though the colored area isn’t meant to be a forecast track.

If the wave becomes a tropical storm, its name will be Delta.

A few other notes in the NHC’s Sunday morning update:

— Tropical Storm Gamma will meander around the Yucatan Peninsula for the next several days.

— Two other disturbances in the central Atlantic Ocean have a low chance of development — about 10% — in the next five days.

Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.