by Jeffrey Beradelli and Gary Detman

Tracking the Tropics. WPEC.

UPDATE:

The CBS12 Weather Team is tracking 2 areas in the tropics.

At 5pm today the National Hurricane Center named the 2nd tropical storm of the season nearing the Leeward Islands. This storm is named Bret. (The first storm of the year was Alex and that was way back in January.) Bret has winds of 40 mph located south of Barbados, near Brazil, and is moving WNW at 30 mph. This storm is forecast to maintain its tropical storm status through midweek but then run into some high wind shear across the central Caribbean. At that point it is forecast to weaken and potentially dissipate.

The other system we are watching is much closer to home. A large but disorganized area of convection is located in the Southern Gulf near Cancun. This system may gradually get better formed and become a subtropical or tropical storm over the next 1-2 days. The system is forecast to move NW towards the Louisiana coast. As it moves away from South Florida it will steal our moisture and give us more sun and a lot less rain over the next few days. But for the northern Gulf coast from eastern Texas to the western FL Panhandle they will see increasing heavy rain. Some isolated areas may see a foot or more of flooding rain through the end of the week.

Neither system is a threat for South Florida.

Original Story:

Tropical Storm Bret has formed near the Leeward Islands.

Bret is moving WNW at 30 miles per hour.

There are tropical storm warnings up for Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada and a portion of Venezuela. Tropical storm watches are in place for Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba.

Bret is one of two systems being tracked in the tropics right now.

There is another system moving in the Gulf that has triggered tropical storm warnings for a portion of the Louisiana coast.

Here is the original post:

Tropical Storm Bret forms by Leeward Islands - WPEC