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NEW YORK-A tropical wave about 950 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands had less than a 20 percent chance of developing into a storm over the next couple of days the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a report Thursday.Most of the weather models forecast the system would approach the Lesser Antilles as it moves westward at 10 to 15 miles per hour over the next five days.If the system strengthens into a tropical storm, with winds of 39-73 mph, it would be named Paloma.Energy traders watch for storms that could enter the Gulf and threaten U.S. oil and natural gas infrastructure along the coast.Commodities traders likewise watch storms that could hit agriculture crops like citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the Gulf Coast to Texas.Elsewhere in the Atlantic basin, the NHC was watching Hurricane Omar in the Atlantic Ocean and the remnants of Tropical Depression 16 over Central America. The weather models do not expect either system to get into the Gulf of Mexico.Omar quickly weakened as it moved rapidly away from the Leeward Islands. On Wednesday, Omar pounded Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as a dangerous Category 3 storm.The NHC expected Omar to weaken into a tropical storm in about 36 hours as it moves northeast toward the Azores.In Central America, meanwhile the NHC expected the remnants of Tropical Depression 16 to remain over Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize over the next several days.As in the days of Noah...
