ROCKINGHAM — Although temperatures have been a little cooler the past few days, Hurricane season doesn’t end until the end of the month and forecasters say there could be another storm in the Atlantic later this week.
The National Hurricane Center reported Monday that a tropical wave about 200 miles from the Leeward Islands is producing an area of disturbed weather in the ocean.
“Although environmental conditions are forecast to gradually become more conducive for a tropical depression to form during the next few days, interaction with land could inhibit tropical cyclone formation,” according to the 1 p.m. report.
Forecasters say there is a 50 percent chance of formation by Wednesday and an 80 percent chance of formation in the next five days.
The disturbance is forecast to continue west-northwestward, passing the Leeward Islands then toward Puerto Rico and the Bahamas, according to the NHS.
As for the rest of this week’s forecast: rain.
The National Weather Service is predicting heavy rainfall throughout Monday night with more chances for showers expected through Thursday night before skies clear on Friday.
Much of Eastern North Carolina is still recovering from the destruction caused by Hurricane Florence in September.
The storm made landfall on Friday, Sept. 14 near Wrightsville Beach and slowly made its way across the Carolinas through the weekend, dumping an estimated 8 trillion gallons of rain.
Most counties south of U.S. 64 and east of Interstate 85 received some flooding.
Elizabethtown in Bladen County recorded nearly three feet of rain, according to preliminary totals on a chart from National Weather Service. Swansboro, which was hit by the surge, received 34 inches.
Further inland, Rockingham recorded more than 14 inches of rain, Lumberton had 22.76 and Raeford received 14.32.
In addition to the rain, Florence’s strong winds snapped trees which landed on power lines, leaving millions of people without electricity.
Many families in the east are still displaced after losing their homes.
Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle in October as a near-Category 5 storm and made its way up through Georgia and the Carolinas before continuing north. That storm caused more than 1,200 Richmond County residents to lose power, cancelling classes and Affair on the Square.
