NEW YORK (Reuters) - A tropical depression could form about 140 miles south of Cape Fear, North Carolina, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a special tropical disturbance statement.
At 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT), the NHC said a small low-pressure system could be forming that has the potential to develop into a tropical depression at any time as it moves north to north-northeastward at 15 to 20 miles per hour.
An Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft will investigate the system later this morning to determine if a closed circulation exists at the surface.
Earlier this morning in a 5:30 a.m. outlook, the NHC said the low-pressure system continued to bring showers and thunderstorms over portions of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
The system was expected to bring heavy rains and gusty winds northward through the Carolinas over the next day or so.
Separately, the NHC said a large tropical wave is located about 800 miles east of the southern Windward Islands (Martinique, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Saint Vincent, The Grenadines, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago).
The NHC said development of the tropical wave, if any, would likely be slow as the wave moves west northwestward at 15 to 20 miles per hour.
The NHC also pointed a couple of other tropical waves in the Atlantic and Caribbean but said at 5:30 a.m. that it did not expect any tropical storms to form through Wednesday.
The Center will call the next storm Beryl.
