A disturbance is in the Atlantic, and after hurricane season, too. What the forecast says

UPDATE 12/6/2022: The disturbance has a medium chance of turning into Tropical or Subtropical Storm Owen this week, forecasters say.

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A disturbance appeared in the Atlantic Monday, just days after hurricane season came to an end.

The disturbance, described as a large area of low pressure, is over the central subtropical Atlantic and about 800 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center’s Monday night advisory.

The system has a 40% chance of formation through the next 48 hours and a medium 50% chance of formation through the next five days.

The forecast is calling for the system to acquire some subtropical or tropical characteristics as it drifts northeast over the Atlantic’s open waters during the next few days.

“By Friday, the low is expected to move over cooler waters and interact with a mid-latitude trough, limiting potential of tropical transition after that time,” the hurricane center said. This means it shouldn’t be a threat to Florida or the rest of the United States.

If it were to turn into a tropical storm, it would be named Owen.

Can a storm form after hurricane season?

Hurricane season officially starts on June 1 and officially ends on Nov. 30. It’s a man-made time frame used to represent the months when tropical storms and hurricanes are most likely to develop.

However, storms can form year-round. And while December storms are rare, they have formed before.

Since 2000, only nine storms have formed after Nov. 30 and none of them made a U.S. landfall, Alex DesRosiers, a Ph.D. candidate at Colorado State University who is part of the school’s Tropical Weather & Climate Research group, previously told the Miami Herald.

Miami Herald staff writer Omar Rodriguez Ortiz contributed to this report.