Tropical Depression 13 has formed in the central tropical Atlantic. 

As of the initial advisory from the National Hurricane Center, the tropical depression is moving to the WNW at 15MPH. It it forecast to reach tropical storm intensity , taking the name Lee. From there, the forecast calls for Lee to reach major hurricane strength as it heads to the northwest, staying just to the north of the Caribbean.

The combination of weaker than normal high pressure over the central Atlantic and a trough of low pressure over the eastern United States will force the storm to turn north well before it gets close to Florida. There is strong agreement in the models that this turn will occur before reaching the Caribbean, keeping it east of the Bahamas and well east of us here in SWFL.

From there, there is some uncertainty in the long range forecast, and impacts to Bermuda, the US East Coast, and Atlantic Canada cannot be ruled out at the time.

We’ll be watching this one closely, so stay tuned for updates.