FLORIDA – As Tropical Storm Helene continues north into the southeastern United States Friday morning after causing catastrophic damage across much of Florida as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, three new areas are being monitored for possible tropical development, according to the National Hurricane Center .

While all eyes were on Helene this week, Hurricane Isaac was quietly forming in the central Atlantic. However, it poses no threat to the United States as it advances northeast toward the sea.

Meanwhile, Invest 98-L, a low pressure area producing showers and thunderstorms halfway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Lesser Antilles, “continues to become more organized,” NHC said. The system is already “producing stormy winds.”

That investment has a 90 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression or storm that could form Friday as the system moves west-northwest at 10 to 15 miles per hour, meteorologists said.

It is expected to slow and turn north-northwestward by the weekend, NHC added.

Just behind Invest 98-L lies a potential low pressure area that could form early to mid next week, according to the agency. Thereafter, a “slow evolution” of the potential system could occur as it moves northwest. There is a 20 percent chance of it developing into a tropical depression or storm in the next seven days.

Another low pressure area could form in the western Caribbean by the middle of next week, NHC said.

“Environmental conditions are expected to favor slow development as the system moves generally northwestward, possibly entering the Gulf of Mexico by the end of next week,” the agency’s forecasters said.

There is a 30 percent chance of it developing into a tropical depression or storm over the next seven days.