Forecasters: Disturbance located east of S. Fla. has low odds of developing

With just a week left in hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center is once again monitoring an area of low pressure that has resurfaced in the Atlantic basin.

The disturbance, located to the east of South Florida, has a 20% chance of developing in the next five days, and is expected tomove to the northeast away from land, according to the National Hurricane Center.

As of 1 p.m., it was a few hundred miles northeast of the central Bahamas.

It is expected to encounter high-level winds that would hinder further development on Monday. However, its odds of developing could increase later thisweek if it’s able to withstand interaction with a cold front that hits Tuesday, forecasters said.

The 2020 hurricane season became the busiest in recorded history when Tropical Storm Theta formed on Nov. 9. Only 2005 has had more hurricanes on record, at 15, Colorado State

University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said.

This hurricane season has been marked by storms — such as Hannah, Laura, Sally, Teddy, Gamma, Delta and Zeta — that have “rapidly intensified,” meaning a gain of at least 35 mph in wind speed in a 24-hour period. Iota, the most recent named storm, doubled that mark in the overnight hours of Nov. 15, when it intensified from a Category 2 hurricane to a Category 4. It dissipated over western El Salvador lastweek.

Meanwhile, a study on hurricanes in the North Atlantic was published this month in the scientific journalNature.

The study found that these hurricanes are “staying stronger after making landfall, which suggests these storms could cause greater destruction in areas farther from the coast in the future,” according to AccuWeather.

Should another storm form, it would be the 31st of the 2020 Atlantic season and would be named Kappa.

Hurricane season endsNov. 30.

Ayoung hurricane victim sips juice Saturday inside a shelter in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The Red Cross estimates that about 4.2 million peoplewere affected by the back-to-back hurricanes inNovember.