Date added: Tuesday September 5, 2006: 230pm EST

It's Tropical Storm Florence Now

"Very large" storm in center of Atlantic

Too Early to Predict Landfall

By HurricaneNow.com
Correspondent Rob Hess

Florence is 6th named storm of season

The tropical depression near the mid-point of the Atlantic Ocean has begun to organize, with some of its maximum sustained tropical storm force winds reaching 40 MPH. TS Florence is still over 900 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, and with a number of variables at work as it makes its trek to the west, it's hard for forecasters to say whether or not this storm will threaten the US east coast, perhaps sometime next week. The weather system covers a large area in the Atlantic, but is still not swirling tightly enough to give forecasters a clear sense of its expected direction or intensity over the next few days.

The National Hurricane Center calls for Florence to reach hurricane force winds Friday morning, but at this moment they are closely watching nearby weather systems that could affect whether Florence could continue toward the east coast or might steer more to the north. Either way, it's a very large storm and bears close monitoring for days to come.

Another Storm About to Form

This is the time of the season when we see more of the "Cape Verde" storms, those disturbances that form in the warm waters of the late summer off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands. These storms often have a period of days to strengthen and become better organized as they make the trek across the tropical waters of the Atlantic. Another "Cape Verde" tropical wave is beginning to form, about 800 miles east and slightly south of TS Florence's current location. Watch for this one to become a tropical depression in the next day or two.