Invest 99L was last seen in the central Bahamas area 7 p.m. CDT Friday.
Red flags for high winds, heavy rain, flooding and mudslides were set earlier this week as Invest 99L showed potential of becoming a huge storm.
Residents in Florida and across the Southeast and Gulf Coast need to monitor this system, but those who made basic hurricane preparations at the start of hurricane season in June need not take additional steps at this point. Saturday morning forecasters gave the system just a 20 percent chance of forming in the next two days and a 40 percent chance in five days.
"A broad area of low pressure associated with a tropical wave is located between the southeastern Bahamas and the northeastern coast of Cuba", the NHC said in a statement.
The storm, now dubbed 99L, is now moving just north of the large islands of the Caribbean. At the time this image was taken, Gaston had maximum sustained winds near 60 miles per hour and was dumping copious amounts rain in North and SC.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Gaston has maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and is about 1,200 miles east of the Leeward Islands headed into the open ocean. Development will be slow due to dry air that the system will encounter, the National Hurricane Center said.
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99L is approaching the Caribbean and the National Hurricane Center has given 99L a 50 percent chance of developing within 48 hours.
While the storm is expected to strengthen, potentially returning to hurricane strength this weekend, forecasts suggest the system will make a sharp turn away from the island on Sunday/Monday.
Hurricane Gaston has weakened to a tropical storm in the Atlantic.
The system is moving westward and then west-northwestward at about 10 miles per hour toward the coast of North Carolina. For the most part, standard late August weather with highs in the 90s and the daily threat of passing storms, but remember the weather next week will depend on the potential tropical weather situation.
Until there is an actual closed center of circulation, forecast models will continue to have a hard time showing where the system will go, Nussbaum said.
