Tropical Wave Marching Toward Caribbean Likely To Become Matthew

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Sep 28 2016 – A large tropical wave is approaching the Windward Islands and will bring deteriorating weather conditions there through today and into early Thursday. Strong winds and thunderstorms squalls will move over the islands causing hazardous weather.

The disturbance, labeled Invest 97L, is showing signs of becoming better organised, featuring some broad spin, a drop in pressure, and a burst of storms around its circulation.

It’s possible this tropical wave will form into a tropical depression or tropical storm later Wednesday, and potentially a hurricane down the road.

Assuming this system develops into a tropical storm or hurricane, the next name on the list would be Matthew.

The National Hurricane Centre gives the disturbance an overall probability of 90 percent to form into a tropical system within the next two days.

Hurricane Hunters are scheduled to investigate the disturbance Wednesday morning to determine if there is a closed centre of circulation.

Forecast models generally agree on the track of the disturbance over the next four to five days, taking it west across the waters of the Caribbean.

It’s far too early to determine if this potential storm will affect the U.S. mainland, so keep checking back with the NBC2 First Alert Hurricane Tracking Team for updates throughout the week as we get more information.