The National Hurricane Center urged residents of the northern and northeastern Gulf Coast to “closely monitor the development” of a tropical system swirling over the western Caribbean.

The system is located off the coast of Honduras and Nicaragua and is expected to drift northward and gain strength as it slowly approaches the United States.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the currently unnamed system has a 70% chance of developing into a tropical storm by Wednesday morning and a 90% chance of developing into a storm by Saturday.

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Once it moves into the Gulf of Mexico, it will encounter extremely warm sea surface temperatures, which could favor rapid development. Several forecast models indicate that a possible hurricane could threaten Florida’s Gulf Coast by the end of the week.

“Environmental conditions appear favorable for the development of this system, and a tropical depression or storm is likely to form over the next few days as the system moves northward across the northwestern Caribbean Sea and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, where it may continue to develop. There is a high probability of a tropical depression forming over the next 48 hours,” wrote Stephen Konarik, senior marine meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center.

So far, the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has produced seven named tropical systems, including four hurricanes and one major hurricane. Just two weeks ago, Hurricane Francine made landfall off the Louisiana coast as a Category 2 system.

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The next system to form in the Atlantic would be named Helene.