Tropical Storm Philippe path is pivoting west toward the eastern Caribbean, but is hampered by wind shear. Meanwhile, off Africa, a tropical depression is likely to form within days, and follow not far behind Philippe.

Philippe, which is expected to gradually weaken this week, was located about 850 miles east of the far eastern Caribbean, moving west at 14 mph as of 11 a.m. Tuesday. The storm is expected to curve north, away from South Florida.

Philippe’s winds rose slightly early Tuesday to 50 mph, then dropped back to 45 mph. Wind shear is expected to increase in the next few days, thus hampering the storm’s symmetry and reducing its strength. “Philippe will likely degenerate into a remnant low in 3 or 4 days,” the hurricane center said.

As a result, Philippe is forecast to become a remnant low by Sunday.

The next named storm would be Rina.

As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, the system off Africa had a 90% chance of developing within seven days and 80% chance in the next two days, the hurricane center said.

So far this season in the Atlantic, there have been 16 named storms, six of which were hurricanes. Of those, three were major hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or above.

Those were Hurricane Lee, a rare Category 5; Hurricane Franklin, a Category 4; and Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend region at Category 3 strength on Aug. 30.

Hurricane season officially runs through Nov. 30.

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