ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — We are nearing the peak of hurricane season and there are several areas we are watching in the tropics.

Hurricane Dorian is the one we have been focusing on because of its impacts to so many people from the Caribbean to the Bahamas to the United States.

We will continue to bring you an update on Dorian every 10 minutes with our Weather on the Nines. You can also get updates at www.baynews9.com.

Tropical Depression 7, in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, has formed into Tropical Storm Fernand. It is no threat to Florida. 

It is forecast to move west toward Mexico where there is a Tropical Storm Warning for parts of the Mexico coast.

In the far eastern Atlantic Ocean, there are two areas to watch. 

The first one is an area of low pressure located a few hundred miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands.

It continues to become better defined and the thunderstorms have been increasing.

A tropical depression is expected to form later today while the system moves generally northwestward across the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean. It’s the area highlighted in red on the map below.  Spaghetti models are being run on this system.

There is a second area we will be watching near that same location later this week.

A tropical wave is forecast to emerge over the far eastern tropical Atlantic near Africa in a couple of days. A tropical depression is likely to form later this week or over the weekend while it moves westward to west-northwestward. That’s the area shaded in orange on the map below.

And finally, we are also monitoring a trough of low pressure in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles south of Bermuda that could become a tropical depression in the next couple of days and move northward toward Bermuda. 

It’s a lot to watch, but for now, Hurricane Dorian will be the main tropical system we are focusing on this week.