The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is monitoring two areas for possible tropical development off the coast of Africa, marking the first activity of the season in a region that produces many of the Atlantic’s long-lived hurricanes. A tropical wave is expected to move off the west coast of Africa on Tuesday and could gradually organize as it moves west across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic. The NHC gave it a 20% chance of development through seven days and virtually no chance through Monday. The tropical Atlantic between West Africa and the Caribbean becomes particularly important as hurricane season approaches its climatological peak in early September. The 2026 season has so far produced Tropical Storms Arthur and Bertha, both of which formed in the Gulf.