Atlantic Storm With Cyclone Potential Has New York, East Coast in Its Path

A storm churning in the Atlantic Ocean has a small chance to form into a tropical system, and its path is aimed at the U.S. East Coast. Residents and tourists in New York City, Philadelphia, Boston and throughout New England are all in the path of the five-day outlook.

The National Hurricane Center's latest model shows disorganized activity with "a sharp trough of low pressure" located about 500 miles east of Bermuda. The system is moving west-northwestward at 15-20 mph Sunday evening and expected to move past Bermuda on Monday evening and towards the U.S. mainland after that.

"Later this week, the system will turn northward towards the cooler waters of the northwestern Atlantic, and further development is not anticipated by that time as upper-level winds increase," the NHC stated on its website.

The NHC states there is less than a 10 percent chance this activity forms into a tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours, and less than 40 percent chance of forming in the next five days.

Although tropical systems in the Atlantic season have seen a rather dormant season, this storm comes on the heels of Hurricanes Ian and Julia within the last month. Ian devastated the southwest coast of Florida on September 28 as a high-level Category 4 storm. It leveled many structures on the barrier islands from Naples to Sarasota, with winds clocking more than 150 mph in some places.

Ian left more than 100 people dead, hundreds injured and hundreds of thousands displaced and without power or running water for at least more than a week.

Florida has reported 92 deaths, with nearly 60 of those in hard-hit Lee County, which is where Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Sanibel, Captiva and Pine Island are located. Deaths were also reported in North Carolina, Virginia and Cuba. Cape Coral took winds of 140 mph, which was the most of any inland municipalities.

Ian traversed northeast across Florida, wreaking havoc in Orlando and up through Jacksonville. Ian downgraded into a tropical storm but regained Category 1 strength before it made landfall again in South Carolina.

Julia took a somewhat similar path as Ian's. Both storms began in the Atlantic, about 10-12 degrees north of the equator. Ian took a northward turn once it got into the Caribbean but Julia stayed on a westward path. Julia continued to a landfall as a Category 1 storm in Nicaragua on October 8.

Hurricane season, which begins annually on May 1, officially ends on November 30. There are no other tropical systems in the Atlantic or Pacific basins at the time, according to the hurricane center.