Hurricane forecasters are watching a stormy area in the Atlantic that could become the season's first tropical storm - Alex. The low-pressure center is currently far from any land mass, more than 1,400 miles east southeast of the Windward Islands of the Caribbean.

But conditions in the region are favorable for further development, forecasters said. And they give the storm a 60 percent chance of becoming a tropical storm during the next 48 hours. The disturbed weather is moving towatd the west northwest at 15 mph.

UPDATE 2 p.m. EDT: Forecasters this afternoon have reduced, to 40 percent, their estimate of this system's chances to become a tropical storm in the next few days.

Hurricane forecasters across the board have predicted a very active hurricane season in the Atlantic this year. They point to record-high sea surface temperatures in area of the Atlantic where many storms are born, and to developing La Nina conditions in the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean, which allows favorable wind conditions to develop in the Atlantic.

(An earlier version of this post stated "developing El Nino conditions" would contribute to an active hurricane season. The blogger regrets the error.)