Tropical storm Harvey path
After drenching the Windward Islands, Harvey will continue to track toward Central America and may bring dangerous conditions early next week.

Harvey developed on Thursday afternoon east of the Windward Islands, becoming the eighth named tropical system of the 2017 Atlantic season.

After inundating the Windward Islands to end the week, the system is expected to track across the warm Caribbean Sea this weekend. While warm waters will favor strengthening, wind shear and other factors may keep the system from doing so quickly.

"Harvey's fast forward speed, the wind shear and dry air flow off of South America will only support slow strengthening through the weekend," according to AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.

Harvey is expected to continue on a westward path over the next couple of days, which will keep it over the open waters of the Caribbean Sea. However, it will pass close enough to Aruba, Bonaire and Curaรงao that an uptick in drenching showers and gusty winds will be possible into Saturday evening.

Boaters will want to keep track of Harvey through the weekend as rough seas are likely to be stirred up across the Caribbean.

The most likely path of this system is west-northwest toward Central America through Monday night. This track will take Harvey very close to the coast of Honduras.

"If Harvey can remain well off the coast of Honduras, then it should have more favorable environmental conditions to intensify, which could allow it to become a hurricane," Kottlowski said.

The full extent of impacts across Central America will depend on the strength of this system. However, heavy rain and gusty winds will be likely for parts of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and southeastern Mexico early next week.
Tropical Storm Harvey impacts
Areas that have heavy rain may be faced with dangerous flooding and mudslides across the higher terrain. If Harvey does become a weak hurricane, strong winds could down trees, bring sporadic power outages and cause minor structural damage to areas along its path.

Harvey will also threaten storm surge and coastal flooding to areas from northern Honduras to Belize and the eastern Yucatan Peninsula.

Harvey may emerge into the Bay of Campeche later next week with the potential to restrengthen and bring further impacts to eastern Mexico.