Hurricane forecasters eye disturbance after a 2-week lull in tropics

Our sleepy, slumbering tropics stopped hitting snooze Friday afternoon.

Instead, the tropics awoke bleary-eyed with a meager stretch after a couple weeks of inactivity.

The National Hurricane Center announced Friday afternoon it was monitoring a disturbance near the Lesser and Greater Antilles that had a 20% chance of developing in the next week.

The system does not currently pose a threat to Florida.

The “area of disturbed weather” over the central Atlantic Ocean will likely mingle with a nearby tropical wave in the next several days, according to the hurricane center. Forecasters say the system could develop while nearing the Lesser Antilles by the middle of next week.

The hurricane center expects the system to move west-northwest through next week.

There have been three named storms so far this year. By far the most catastrophic has been Hurricane Beryl, a storm that rapidly intensified into a Category 5 and wreaked havoc on the Caribbean. The storm was downgraded to a Category 1 when it swept through Texas, though it managed to knock out power to 2.7 million people. The storm killed at least eight people in the United States.

The past few weeks have been silent in the tropics. Saharan dust is largely to thank for the little activity. While the dust spurs gorgeous sunsets in Tampa Bay, it also stifles tropical activity. The dust typically peaks each year between late June and mid-August.

Tropical activity typically picks up around mid-August through September, during what is considered peak season.

In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its most aggressive preseason forecast in history.

The benchmark forecast expects up to 25 named storms, of which 13 could become hurricanes and up to seven could strengthen into a major hurricane, which is a Category 3 or higher.