(Bloomberg) -- A stormy patch of sky in the Caribbean Sea is threatening to become the 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
Forecasters at the US National Hurricane Center are monitoring a wide zone of low pressure south of Jamaica, warning that it has a 90% chance of evolving into a tropical cyclone by Friday. If the system develops winds of 39 miles (63 kilometers) per hour, it will be named Tropical Storm Sara.
It’s too early to know if Sara would represent a threat to the US. Hurricane hunter aircraft are expected to fly over the storm later Wednesday and gather more details, forecaster Larry Kelly wrote in an update. Sea surface temperature readings nearby are about 86F (30C) — well above the threshold for a hurricane to form.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially ends Nov. 30, though storms can continue to develop past that date. The 2024 season has been unusually active, spawning 17 named storms, compared with an average of 14.
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