Potential Tropical Cyclone

Source: Fox Weather

Introduced by the National Hurricane Center in 2017, a potential tropical cyclone permits the NHC to issue routine advisories on a system that has not yet developed into a tropical depression or tropical storm but brings a threat of 39-plus-mph winds to land within 48 hours.

The NHC publishes a projected path and a full suite of text, graphical and watch/warning products every six hours for all potential tropical cyclones, just as it does for hurricanes and tropical storms. These updates occur at 5 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. When storm watches or warnings are in effect for any land areas, which is almost always the case with potential tropical cyclones, the NHC also provides additional updates at the three-hour intervals between those times.

The same naming conventions currently in place for tropical depressions, which are assigned a number from a chronological list, are used for potential tropical cyclones. That number always corresponds with the total number of systems that has occurred so far during the hurricane season. For example, if the NHC had already issued tropical weather advisories on eight systems in the Atlantic Basin that year, the next land-threatening system in the Atlantic would be deemed Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine.