If the current activity is anything to go by, the 2021 hurricane season is keeping true to above-average forecasts, as meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) are now tracking two weather disturbances.

The NHC, in an advisory on Friday (May 21), said that the non-tropical system gathering steam off the coast of Bermuda has become better organised and has a 90 per cent probability to intensify into a storm in the next 48 hours.

The low-pressure system was located about 724 kilometres (450 miles) east-northeast of Bermuda as at 8:00 am Eastern Time.

“The low[-pressure system] has not yet acquired subtropical storm characteristics. However, if current trends continue advisories could be initiated on the system later today or tonight as it moves westward
to west-southwestward to the northeast of Bermuda,” the US-based NHC indicated.

In the meantime, Bermuda Weather Service has issued a tropical storm watch alert.

Weather sleuths at the hurricane watchdog are also tracking another disturbance in the western Gulf of Mexico.

According to the NHC, recent satellite imagery suggests that a low-level circulation is forming, however, shower and thunderstorm activity remains disorganised.

“Environmental conditions are expected to be marginally conducive for development, and a short-lived tropical depression or storm could form before the disturbance moves inland over the northwestern Gulf coast tonight,” the NHC advised.

Regardless of development, the NHC added that the system brewing in the Gulf of Mexico could produce heavy rainfall over portions of southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana during the next few days.

The first two listed names for the 2021 North Atlantic Hurricane Season, which officially commences on June 1, are Ana and Bill.

In 2020, Tropical Storm Arthur sprung to life on May 16, becoming the first of 30 named storms at the end of the season in November.