3 tropical disturbances being tracked by hurricane forecasters

Hurricane forecasters are continuing to monitor three areas of rough weather in the tropics on Wednesday, including one that is expected to become a tropical storm as it sloshes toward Central America.

None of the systems being monitored was a threat to Florida as of Wednesday morning.

However, Trinidad & Tobago on Wednesday reported power outages related to the most organized of the three disturbances, which was speeding through the southern Caribbean on a path to Central America.

Officials said the storms also temporarily shut down wastewater plants, but no serious damage was reported.

The disturbance was located about 185 miles east-southeast of the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao Wednesday morning. It had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was moving west at 30 mph. It was expected to become a tropical storm in its approach to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, though forecasters said its rapid pace might slow development.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba as well as Islas de Margarita, Coche and Cubagua and the coast of Venezuela from the Paraguana peninsula past the border with Colombia to the town of Santa Marta.

Up to 6 inches of rain were forecast for Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago and northeast Venezuela.

Closer to Florida, a patch of rough weather in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico was moving slowly west and was expected to approach the Texas coast later today. The system is loosely organized, but development is possible and it could become “a short-lived tropical depression near the coast before it moves inland tonight or early Thursday,” the National Hurricane Center’s 8 a.m. advisory on Wednesday said.

Forecasters give the system a 40 percent chance of developing into a tropical system. The weather will at the very least bring heavy rain to Texas over the next few days, the hurricane center said.

A third patch of weather being watched by forecasters was expected to move over the Windward Islands late Friday or early Saturday and then over the eastern Caribbean over the weekend. Further development is unlikely, forecasters said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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