Gardner: Current weather pattern could keep developing Atlantic storm offshore

A storm twirling far out in the Atlantic Ocean has a chance of becoming a tropical storm, but the current weather pattern over the Southeast could keep it offshore.

Posted 12:58 p.m. Aug 9, 2017 — Updated 6:05 p.m. Jul 13, 2018

RALEIGH, N.C. — A storm twirling far out in the Atlantic Ocean has a chance of becoming a tropical storm, but the current weather pattern over the Southeast could keep it offshore.

Forecasters have been tracking the storm for several days, but on Tuesday it wasn't given a very good chance of developing into anything stronger. On Wednesday, forecasters increased the chance that the storm will get stronger, though WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner said it's still too early to say exactly where it will go.

"Yesterday, it really looked like there was not much chance it would develop, but the Hurricane Center—as some of the computer models are starting to give it a little better chance of development—have upped its chance to 40 percent in the next five days," said WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner.

Computer forecast models show the storm tracking toward the US Southeast, Gardner said, but the region's current weather pattern could bounce the storm back out into the ocean.

"The (weather) pattern over the Southeast is such that (the storm) should get kicked out to sea," Gardner said. "We'll watch and see how that all shapes up."