Forecasters have their eyes on a disturbance stirring in the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Bahama Islands and east of South Carolina. It's not a threat to the U.S. at the moment, but computer models suggest changes in the wind circulation over the Atlantic that could draw this stormy weather closer to the East Coast by the weekend.

AccuWeather blogger Brett Anderson has the storm growing to hurricane strength off the North Carolina coast by Saturday morning. (It would be named Gabrielle.) That could bring us some badly needed rain.

Models do have the disturbance becoming a tropical cyclone later this week. Here is a bit of this morning's discussion from Sterling:

"NEXT POTENTIAL WEATHER MAKERS CONTINUE TO BE A SLOW MOVING COLDFRONT EXPECTED TO
APPROACH THE AREA EARLY NEXT WEEK AND A DISTURBANCE LOCATED MIDWAY
BETWEEN THE NORTHEAST FLORIDA COAST AND BERMUDA WHICH ALL THE GLOBAL
MODELS HAVE IT BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE BY LATE THU OR FRI.

"IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO INDICATE AT THE MOMENT WHAT IMPACTS IF ANY THIS POTENTIAL
TROPICAL CYCLONE MAY HAVE IN THE LOCAL AREA.  FORECAST CONTINUES TO
CALL FOR AN INCREASE IN CLOUD COVER AND PRECIPITATION PROBABILITIES BEGINNING SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF NEXT WEEK DUE TO FRONTAL BOUNDARY EXPECTED TO
STALL OVER THE REGION."

Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center's discussion includes this about the storm:

"THIS SYSTEM HAS CHANGED LITTLE OVERNIGHT BUT UPPER LEVEL WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO
BECOME MORE FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT INTO A TROPICAL OR
SUBTROPICAL DEPRESSION THAT COULD DURING THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

"THE LOW LEVEL CENTER IS PARTIALLY EXPOSED WITH SCATTERED
MODERATE/ISOLATED STRONG CONVECTION TO THE E WITHIN 150/180 NM
OF A LINE FROM THE BAHAMAS NEAR 24N76W TO 31N69W WITH SCATTERED
SHOWERS/ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WITHIN 75 NM ALONG THE E COAST OF
FLORIDA FROM FORT LAUDERDALE TO JACKSONVILLE."

Here's AccuWeather's take on the system. As they say on the editorial page, "this bears watching."