Latest system brewing could be Tropical Storm Gabrielle. Will it track to NC?
Update: Find the latest information here.
A tropical wave over the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean could become a tropical depression by the middle to latter part of this week, according to the National Hurricane Center.
As of Sept. 14, it’s located a few hundred miles west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands and is moving west-northwest at about 15 miles per hour over the central tropical Atlantic.
Because of its projected speed, forecasters say it has an 70% of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next seven days.
If it becomes a tropical storm, it will be the seventh named storm of the season: Gabrielle.
Although dry and stable conditions are expected to limit development during the next couple of days, the system is expected to ramp up as it moves west-northwestward at 10 to 15 miles per hour over the central tropical Atlantic.
At present, the storm poses no immediate threat to North Carolina, and it’s still too early to tell which way it will track. But forecasters say they’re keeping an eye on it.
When is hurricane season?
The disturbance hits at the peak of hurricane season, which kicked off June 1 and runs to Nov. 1 every year, though there have been outlier hurricanes before and after those dates.
So far, the season has named six named storms. That includes Erin, which hit parts of North Carolina’s Outer Banks with rip currents and coastal flooding, but remained mostly offshore.
Any tropical storm or hurricane that forms in the Atlantic basin can affect North Carolina.
Hurricane Helene, which formed in the Gulf and took an inland route to the mountains of North Carolina, caused record flooding and more than 2,000 landslides across the Southern Appalachian mountains last September, though it had weakened to tropical storm strength by then.
Martha Quillin contributed to this story.
This story was originally published September 14, 2025 at 12:22 PM.
