ODM closely monitoring weather system east of the Caribbean islands

 The Department of Disaster Management (ODM) is closely monitoring the progress of a low pressure system which was upgraded Wednesday afternoon to Tropical Depression #5 (TD#5).
 

TD#5 is expected to become Tropical Storm Ernesto on Thursday and a number of Caribbean islands have issued tropical storm watches for their populations, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

A Tropical Storm Watch for the aforementioned islands means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area within 48 hours.

Early Wednesday evening TD#5 was approximately 700 miles east of the Windward Islands.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami, has requested interests in the Lesser Antilles to monitor the progress of this system.