Now that Matthew’s story is complete, immediate attention will turn to Nicole, a tropical storm currently 450 miles south of Bermuda. The models generally agree that Nicole will slowly strengthen back into a hurricane and that there is a good chance that Matthew will become a strong category 1 or weak category 2 hurricane as it tracks close to Bermuda this Thursday.
So with no tropical troubles threatening the U.S. coastline in the immediate future, this is the time of year that the insurance industry often wonders if there is any other tropical trouble forecasted for the remainder of the year.
Climatologically over the next two weeks we tend to see stable named storm activity, but after October 18th, the activity in the Atlantic Basin drastically trails off.
This is also roughly the time of year that the West African – Cape Verde type hurricane season trails off due to the equator-ward shift of the African Monsoon. This past weekend the overall tropical rainfall seemed to shift below 10 degrees north latitude, which is the benchmark for tropical waves coming off Africa to obtain enough spin to become named storms.

Here is a look at the tropical rainfall totals since mid July. It shows the height of the African Waves during middle of August with a trailing off over since this period. The axis to the left is latitude showing a trend towards the equator.
This is also the time of year that colder Canadian troughs of low pressure air start to invade the U.S. Often these weather systems leave trailing cold fronts that sometimes extend into the southern Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean. Low pressure can form at the tail end of these fronts, and if the water is warm enough in the Gulf or Caribbean, it can encourage tropical convection which could then become organized. These typical developments are consistent with some of the models’ long-range weather forecasts for later next week.

Forecasts for Thursday morning show an area of low pressure moving across the upper Great Lakes, which could provide the first freeze of the year for the upper Midwest. This forecast also shows Nicole moving toward Bermuda.
This low pressure moves across the north Atlantic late next week, and it leaves a trailing cold front with an area of low pressure off the east coast of Mexico in the western Caribbean. This is the area that needs to be watched for tropical trouble later next week as the water in this area is plenty warm enough to support tropical convection.
The long range forecast from Oct 17 – Oct 24th total precipitation plot below show a decent amount of rain which could be from convection thunderstorms.
The graphic below illustrates the climatological pattern that is typical of tropical storms that originate in October so the Western Caribbean is the place to watch over the next three week.