5 tropical systems brewing at peak of Atlantic hurricane season

MIAMI — Sept. 10 is considered the peak of hurricane season for the Atlantic basin. It lived up to that label Thursday as five active systems, including a pair of tropical storms, marched across the tropics.

A sixth system, a tropical wave, is expected to come off the western coast of Africa later this week, the National Hurricane Center said.

In its 11 p.m. EDT advisory, the hurricane center was tracking Tropical Storm Paulette and Tropical Storm Rene, the Atlantic season’s 16th- and 17th-named systems. Paulette, with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, is expected to become a hurricane by the weekend and approach Bermuda early next week, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Rene has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and is meandering in the middle Atlantic, moving northwest at 12 mph.

One system, containing a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms, is hovering near the central and northwest Bahamas and is expected to cross the islands and bring strong rains as it crosses South Florida and enters the Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane center said this system could form into a tropical depression once it reaches the Gulf.

A low-pressure system in the north-central Gulf of Mexico may see some slow development as it moves west and then southeast, the hurricane center said.

Forecasters said a tropical wave that moved off the west coast of Africa has a 60% chance of forming into a tropical depression within 48 hours and a 90% chance by the end of the weekend.

The remaining storm names this year are Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred, the Miami Herald reported. If there are storms after Wilfred, they will be named after Greek letters. Names from the Greek alphabet have only been used once, during the 2005 season when there were 27 named storms. That was the season when a record five hurricane names were retired -- Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma -- according to the National Hurricane Center.

Cox Media Group