At a Glance

An Atlantic system has a low chance to become the season's next tropical depression.Dry air and wind shear along its path will hinder development.Regardless, this system will remain in the open Atlantic Ocean for the next few days.

Atlantic hurricane season has attempted to wake up from its recent slumber over the past few days, but it looks like it will have to wait a bit longer.

A tropical wave is tracking through the central Atlantic waters after coming off the coast of Africa this past weekend. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has tagged this tropical wave Invest 97L, a used to identify features they are monitoring for possible development.

These elongated areas of low pressure move across the Atlantic regularly, and can sometimes spur on the development of tropical depressions or storms.

This particular tropical wave is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms right now. It needs to form a well-defined area of low pressure with organized thunderstorm activity in order to be deemed a tropical depression by the NHC.

Right now, the NHC says there is a low chance this system will form into a tropical depression as it tracks westward through the open Atlantic waters over the next few days.

Atlantic Area To Watch

Forecast Factors

The Atlantic has been in a slumber since Tropical Storm Colin developed in early July.

While tropical waves have rolled off the African continent into the Atlantic every few days, none have had success recently due to an abundance of dry and dusty air from the Sahara. This dust has encircled several tropical waves over the last few weeks causing them to dry out and fall apart before they got to more hospitable conditions further west.

It's becoming increasingly likely that Invest 97L will also struggle to develop because of a combination of that dry air and increasing wind shear along its future path in a few days.

Other ingredients to consider as this system moves westward are water temperatures and instability.

This system may eventually get into a parcel of water temperatures that might be a tad too cool for tropical development. This area is located a thousand miles east of Puerto Rico where water temperatures . Typically, tropical systems get the best fuel for thunderstorm development with water temperatures over 80 degrees.

While this by itself won't halt development, it could make it more difficult for a system to fight off dust and dry air as it crosses the Atlantic.

The region roughly between has seen below-average water temperatures for several weeks.

The cooler water temperatures and dust have resulted in over much of the Tropical Atlantic this hurricane season. Instability, simply put, is how likely thunderstorms are to grow in the atmosphere. A lack of instability...or low instability...means that thunderstorms won't grow and tropical systems won't be able to flourish.

(MORE: August Marks Start of Atlantic Hurricane Season's Peak Time)

Hurricane Season Ramping Up

We're now entering the most active period of hurricane season.

The bulk of tropical storms and hurricanes occur between the later half of August and the first half of October, with a peak around Sept. 10.

The time is now to prepare for a hurricane.

You can find tips on how to develop your hurricane plan .

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