MIAMI – Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center predict an area of disturbance in the Atlantic Ocean will soon become a tropical depression.

Satellite images indicate that the large area of cloudiness and thunderstorms associated with a tropical wave centered about 500 miles west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands is gradually becoming better organized. Conditions appear to be favorable for a tropical depression to form during the next couple of days while the system moves toward the west-northwest and then northwest toward the open waters of the central Atlantic.

Formation chance through 48 hours is high at 70 percent and formation chance through five days is also high at 80 percent.