The National Hurricane Center began monitoring a tropical wave that would later become Gamma around November 11, but the system did not develop into a tropical depression until after it had passed the Lesser Antilles on November 13. At that time, the storm was called Tropical Depression Twenty-Seven and was predicted to strengthen into a strong tropical storm or a weak hurricane as it moved across the Caribbean Sea. However, a second system developing in the southwestern edge of the Caribbean began pushing wind shear onto the depression on November 14, then weakening the depression into a tropical low; advisories were then temporarily stopped. On later reanalysis, it was found that the depression had probably become a tropical storm by November 15 at 0600 UTC for less than 6 hours, but was not named during the time.