UPDATE - 3:45 pm Saturday: Beryl becomes first hurricane of 2024 season. It is forecasted to intensify rapidly and become a hurricane before reaching the Windward Islands by Sunday night or Monday morning. While still not posing an immediate threat to southern Louisiana, it will be something the Storm Station continues to monitor over the coming days. 

ORIGINAL STORY: Tropical Depression Two has formed in the Tropical Atlantic. The storm has peak winds at 35 mph and is located roughly 1200 miles from Barbados. Two is moving west at a fast rate of 21 mph.

The system will likely strengthen to a tropical storm by Saturday, taking the name Beryl once that happens. A landfall as a hurricane in the Lesser Antilles is possible early next week. After that, confidence is high that the system will generally move in a westward direction into the Caribbean Sea. Uncertainty grows as to where the storm will go thereafter.

There is still a lot of time to monitor the progression of the system. At this time, there is no cause for worry locally at this stage. Nevertheless, the Storm Station is watching the system closely and will post further updates if anything changes.

Tropical storm formation in this part of the Atlantic is highly unusual for late June and early July. Storms origins like this are more typical of August and September.

The Storm Station is here for you, tracking the tropics on every platform. Your weather updates can be found on News 2, wbrz.com, and the WBRZ WX App on your Apple or Android device. Follow WBRZ Weather on Facebook and Twitter for even more weather updates while you are on the go. You can also find tropical updates on our Hurricane Center HERE.