NEW YORK (Reuters) - A tropical wave about 500 miles east-southeast of the southern Windward Islands had less than a 20 percent chance of developing over the next couple of days, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Friday.

Most of the weather models forecast the system would approach the Lesser Antilles over the next five days.
If the system strengthens into a tropical storm, with winds of 39-73 mph, it would be named Paloma.
Energy traders watch for storms that could enter the Gulf of Mexico and threaten U.S. oil and natural gas platforms as well refineries along the coast.
Commodities traders likewise watch storms that could hit agriculture crops like citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the coast to Texas.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic basin, the NHC was watching Tropical Storm Omar in the Atlantic Ocean and the remnants of Tropical Depression 16 over Central America. The weather models did not indicate either would enter the Gulf.
Omar weakened further as it moved northeast over the Atlantic toward the Azores.
In Central America, meanwhile, the NHC expected the remnants of Tropical Depression 16 to produce heavy rain from Costa Rica to southern Mexico over the next couple of days before drifting into the Pacific Ocean.