UPDATE (10:30 p.m. 05/27/2016) -- The tropical depression has not gained a huge amount of strength late Friday night, but conditions remain favorable for the system to intensify further, possibly becoming Tropical Storm Bonnie on Saturday. The overall expectations for its future movement are basically unchanged from before.
The updated forecast track will also be available on the Hurricane Center section here on wtxl.tv.
MIDWAY, Fla. (WTXL) -- After continuous monitoring for several days this week, a low-pressure center in the western Atlantic has become the second tropical depression of 2016.
The depression is located more than 500 miles east of the Florida peninsula, or about 435 miles southeast of Charleston, S. C., with peak winds of 35 mph.
The system is moving west-northwest at 13 mph.
The hurricane season hasn't officially begun. Despite this, the current depression is forecast to slowly or gradually intensify into a tropical storm, which would be named Bonnie.
The system is expected to maintain a track to the northwest, generally toward the coastal zones of the Carolinas. A landfall is possible along this section of the U. S. Atlantic shore. In the longer-range, a slower movement and a turn to the northwest are projected.
Effects from the storm in northeast Florida will be indirect, primarily in the form of higher surf, increased swells, and higher rip current risks along the beaches of the First Coast.
In the Big Bend, the circulation will keep a northeast or north wind in place, limiting local rain chances and increasing daytime temperatures for the first couple of days of the Memorial Day weekend.
