US weather: Giant ‘depression’ in the Atlantic threatens to spawn new hurricane hell

Three developments over tropical waters have meteorologists cautiously watching for the next big storm.

Sub-tropical Storm Patty is heading east towards Europe while over the weekend, a more powerful system and its twin erupted in the Caribbean.

It is the larger of the two which has meteorologists gritting their teeth as it grows in strength on its journey to the US east coast.

AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert said: “We are sounding the alarm for a brewing tropical threat that could bring direct impacts to the Gulf Coast of the United States late this week into next weekend.

“The brewing tropical storm is expected to make a north-eastward turn across Jamaica and Cuba, bringing heavy downpours and gusty winds to those islands.

“It is not out of the question it becomes a hurricane in the Caribbean.”

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Warm ocean temperatures late in the season will help boost the formation of the next storm.

Torrential downpours and strong winds threaten Cuba and Jamaica before heading north towards the US.

It comes just weeks after Helene and Milton hit Florida causing damage running to hundreds of billions of dollars.

Another three storms are predicted before the end of the year in what is still tipped to be an usually active end to the season.

AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva warned families along the Gulf Coast to prepare for storm disruption.

He said: “We’re in the final month of hurricane season, and we’re expecting one to three named storms to develop this month.

“There have only been three hurricane landfalls in the United States November since 1900, and they all made landfall in Florida.

“We’ve never seen a tropical storm or hurricane on record make landfall in Texas or Louisiana during November.”

Monster Hurricane Milton was followed by Nadine and Oscar and most recently, Patty with the next to be called Rafael.

Unusually warm ocean waters prompted experts earlier in the year to sound the alarm for a particularly vicious hurricane season.

After a quiet September, the Atlantic hurled out a barrage of storms, with Milton threatening to smash records for its ferocity.

Warmer-than-normal waters around the Gulf of Mexico have turned the region into a hurricane powerhouse.

Jim Dale, US meteorologist for British Weather Services and co-author of ‘Surviving Extreme Weather’, said: “There is still the potential for hurricane activity to come out of the Gulf of Mexico, and there is a system at the moment that has a fifty-fifty chance of building to that strength.

“We are certainly looking at a tropical storm in the region, and the next would be Rafael, or potentially Hurricane Rafael.

“This is going to be something to watch over the coming days as it has the potential to turn into something significant.”