By Brett Clarkson From Sun Sentinel

Another week, another area of potential storm development in the Atlantic.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center are watching a patch of weather in the far eastern Atlantic that so far has a slight chance of becoming a tropical cyclone.

Forecasters say an area of disorganized rain showers a few hundred miles south of the Cabo Verde Islands is moving west across the Atlantic. It was given a 20 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone over the next five days.

The potential system is depicted in a National Hurricane Center graphic as having the potential to form in the Central Atlantic. It could then continue west toward the southeast corner of the Caribbean Sea, an area that stretches roughly from the northern coast of Venezuela to the Barbados and also includes St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center was set to take another look at the remains of Tropical Depression Four, which formed and then dissipated in the eastern and central Atlantic last week. Four’s remains were still chugging along toward the Caribbean, and a reconnaissance flight was scheduled to head out to that cluster of rain and clouds on Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

A tropical cyclone refers to an organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that rotates — counter-clockwise in the Atlantic — and has strong winds and a closed circulation, meaning it will have an eye. Tropical cyclones can take the form of a tropical depression, tropical storm, or hurricane.

The next named storm will be called ‘Don’.

Since April the Atlantic basin, which includes the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, has seen three tropical storms: Arlene, Bret, and Cindy. Bret passed over southern Trinidad, causing flooding there, and northern Venezuela. Cindy was the only one to make U.S. landfall, coming ashore at the Texas-Louisiana border. It was blamed for at least one fatality, a 10-year-old boy who died after he was struck by debris along the Alabama coast.

So far, the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season has seen above average activity, as was predicted by government and academic experts. But forecasters also say that a busy start to a hurricane season has no bearing on the remainder of the season.

Are you prepared for hurricane season? Check out the Sun Sentinel’s 2017 Hurricane Guide here.

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