The Atlantic hurricane season was getting more active as of Saturday.

The National Hurricane Center has identified three areas for potential tropical development in the next week.

One of them is in the Gulf, and another has the potential to eventually head that way. A third disturbance is in the far eastern Atlantic and has a low chance of becoming a depression.

The disturbances in the Gulf and the one in the central Atlantic will be the ones to watch this weekend and into next week.

The area of broad low pressure currently in the Gulf was generating a lot of rain and some storms over parts of Louisiana and Texas on Saturday. Flood watches were ongoing along the Louisiana coast.

The hurricane center thinks the disturbance could meander near or over the coast through much of next week.

If it stays offshore there’s a chance for some slow development, forecasters said. It has a 20 percent probability of becoming a tropical depression in the next week.

It will continue to raise the risk of flooding in Louisiana and Texas, and could possibly spawn some rain in southwest Alabama through next week depending on its movement.

Farther to the east on Saturday was a tropical wave that was located several hundred miles east of the Lesser Antilles.

The hurricane center has been tracking it for days and said it could become a tropical depression — but not until the middle or end of next week.

It could move through the Lesser Antilles starting on Monday.

It has a 50 percent probability of becoming a tropical depression in the next week.

The hurricane center’s forecast takes the disturbance into the Caribbean and south of Puerto Rico next week.

When storms begin on that path the question is always will they eventually make it into the Gulf. It’s just too soon to say as of Saturday, but the National Weather Service in Mobile noted that many models take the system toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

The weather service will continue to watch it closely this weekend into next week, when there could be more clarity about its potential track.

There hasn’t been a named storm or even a disturbance in the Atlantic Basin since Hurricane Ernesto in mid-August. The next name on the 2024 Atlantic storm list is Francine.

NOAA is forecasting the potential for 17 to 24 named storms in the Atlantic before the end of the hurricane season on Nov. 30.

So far there have been five named storms. Three of them have become hurricanes, and one strengthened to a major hurricane — a record-setting Category 5 (Beryl).