On the afternoon of October 13, a large area of low pressure formed in the southwestern Caribbean Sea, about 160 mi (160 km) east-southeast of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. The low was found in a place that was good for development and a tropical cyclone formation alert was given out soon after the low formed. The low slowly became better organized and was thought to have turned into a tropical depression the next morning while it was 50 mi (80 km) northeast of the Nicaragua/Honduras border. The depression was predicted to move across from the coastline, and later move to the west when it was north of Honduras, and by then make landfall in Belize as a tropical storm with winds of 65 mph (105 km/h) on October 18.