Tropical development is possible next week between Africa and the Lesser Antilles as we near the peak of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season.
Right now, it’s over western Africa. It’s a disturbance known as a tropical wave, or African easterly wave. These disturbances in the atmosphere move from east to west off Africa into the Atlantic Ocean and are often the seeds of tropical storms and hurricanes.
We expect that tropical wave to move into the Atlantic Ocean by Saturday. After that, most computer forecast models suggest it could develop into a tropical depression or storm around mid-week when it’s between Africa and the Lesser Antilles.
That area of possible development is highlighted on the map above.
There is another area on the map in the eastern Atlantic Ocean that also could develop, noted in red above. That other system- named Invest 94L by meteorologists- is expected to move north-northwest in the far eastern Atlantic and is no threat to the Caribbean or the U.S.
