Ready Teddy? (And Where's Wilfred?)

The storm that became Hurricane Teddy, originally expected to take along arc along the East Coast, is likely to stay out to sea.  But there's another threat.

Never mind the active storms or the disturbance shown on this map from today in yellow, as they have no chance of becoming tropical depressions.  As for the disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico shown in red, red meaning a high chance of forming there's no indication that this system will make landfall if it developed.  Pay attention instead to the other disturbance shown in red, the one off the coast of Africa.  It's a 70 percent chance for forming by this coming weekend.  And as it will form that far south and move west over warm waters, it has a good chance of being a storm like Teddy and will likely receive the name Wilfred.

According to the area shaded in red, it's likely to take a west-northwest turn west of the 40th meridian like Teddy, but that doesn't mean that this likely storm will follow the same trajectory as Teddy.  All tropical cyclones are different from each other, and there's no guarantee that that pattern that is keeping Teddy out to sea will keep what I call Future Wilfred as well.  (And, truth be told, there's no guarantee that Teddy will be far out to sea enough not to affect land either.)  Although it's not showing up as a tropical system in any long-range projections yet, this disturbance could very well the next storm of this busy 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season and a storm that needs to be watched - and the last storm to be given a Christian name this season.

Even if Future Wilfred doesn't get the East Coast, by the way, a storm named for Greek letter just might.  I know we're past peak season, but remember - Sandy hit the American Northeast two days before Halloween, and at least one of the almanacs had forecast a hurricane threat for the Northeast around Columbus Day.