Heads up East Coast!

May 23, 2010; 4:02 PM ET

An area of low pressure taking shape east of the Bahamas and north of the Dominican Republic is still being monitored for possible pre-season tropical development. Over the next few days, this system is expected to move northwestward toward the southeastern U.S.

Potential for development

AccuWeather.com meteorologists still believe this feature has little, if any, chance of developing into a true tropical system. The more likely scenario is that it takes on both tropical and non-tropical characteristics, making it a "hybrid" storm.

Hybrid systems can be named as subtropical storms or depressions. Subtropical Storm Andrea, for example, formed in early May of 2007 off the Southeast coast. The first name on the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Season list is Alex.

Possible impacts on the U.S.

While the system is expected to start moving northwestward over the next few days, there is still some uncertainty in how close it will track near the southeastern U.S.

Earlier this past week, computer models were in general agreement with the storm drawing close to or even moving onshore over the Carolinas sometime Tuesday into Wednesday.

Several of these models have backed off on this idea and now show the system staying farther offshore of the Carolinas.

The farther away the storm stays from the Carolinas, the lesser the impacts of strong winds and heavy rain will be. At this point, it appears the strongest winds and heaviest rain will stay offshore.

However, a period of gusty winds and locally heavy rain may still lash the Outer Banks of North Carolina with Tuesday being the most likely time frame. Rounds of showers and thunderstorms will also affect areas from the Carolinas into Florida over the next few days.

The more widespread and certain impacts of this storm will be rough surf and rip currents from the coast of the mid-Atlantic to the east coast of Florida this week. Rip currents were already being reported at Folly Beach in South Carolina Saturday.

Since the overall weather pattern early this week will lend to warm weather across the eastern two-thirds of the nation, many people in the Southeast will be tempted to head to the beach.

With the high danger for rip currents, beach-goers are encouraged to use caution and only swim within sight of a lifeguard. Never swim alone.

Looking ahead to June, the Atlantic waters near the Bahamas will remain a favorable area for tropical systems to form. Other common breeding grounds for tropical systems in June include the western Caribbean and much of the western half of the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/31861/preseason-system-being-monitor.asp