A broad area of low pressure near the coast of Nicaragua today is expected to slowly organize this week and is likely to become a tropical depression or named storm by the middle of the week as it heads northward toward the U.

Some forecasters fear the storm system could grow into a major hurricane that could impact the Gulf coast region of the U.S.

The National Hurricane Center said several potentially severe low-pressure systems are brewing in the region — with computer forecast models depicting a strong tropical storm developing over