Two Atlantic tropical waves could become named storms

TAMPA (FOX 13) - The attention is not only on Tropical Storm Florence. Two tropical waves coming from the coast of Africa have a high probability of becoming the next named storms for the Atlantic hurricane season.

Those two waves will likely be named over the weekend, says FOX 13’s meteorologist Dave Osterberg. The first is Invest 92L -- the wave furthest west -- could become a tropical depression on Friday, and eventually Tropical Storm Helen. 

The size of the tropical wave behind it is visibly much larger than Florence. If it develops, the next name on the list would be Isaac.

“We got time to watch it,” Osteberg said.

LINK: See more models on MyFoxHurricane.com

As of Friday morning, Florence has a wind speed of 65 mph, but is expected to restrengthen to a major hurricane and Category 3 status by next Wednesday. 

The forecast for Florence is a tricky one beyond 5 or 6 days. With multiple steering features in play, there is still substantial model spread regarding the ultimate path of Florence during the second half of next week. It’s simply too early to say how close it will come to a brush with the east coast of the United States.

“Anybody say from the coastal portions of South Carolina/Georgia border all the way up to New England need to watch this very, very closely,” Osterberg explained. "I think by Monday we will have a really good idea if this is going to hit."