Where did the disturbance in the Atlantic go? Here’s what hurricane forecasters say

Off the map and order restored in the tropics.

A disturbance that the National Hurricane Center in Miami had been tracking in the subtropical central Atlantic this week is no longer on the map.

Did it simply fizzle?

Not quite, said NOAA meteorologist Lisa Bucci at the center.

“It did not disappear. But the chances of it becoming a tropical system were low enough that we stopped issuing advisories on it. It wasn’t so much that it dissipated. It’s just that it became more of a low-pressure system.”

The disturbance, which would have been named Owen had it developed into name status, was about 850 miles east-southeast of Bermuda Thursday morning and had been given 30% chances of developing over two or five days.

It would have been the 15th named storm of 2022 had that happened. There have been only 10 named storms in December since 1950.

The system is now going to become an extra tropical low, Bucci said Friday morning, and has weakened to the point “we’re pretty confident that it will not pose a threat in the future.”