The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday that a tropical depression that has moved off the African coast will develop into a tropical storm sometime today.
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The storm is about 920 miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands.
Maximum sustained winds are estimated at 35 miles per hour and further strengthening to tropical storm status is forecast to occur later today. Forecasters say this could become a tropical storm after it emerges over the Atlantic sometime this weekend. If it does, it would become the seventh named storm of the season.
But forecasters say the storm is no threat to anywhere except to Bermuda. Its name would be Gaston. Mona Barnes, the agency’s director, is encouraging the community to also monitor weather reports and to be ready in the event a storm threatens the US Virgin Islands. Of those that do strengthen into a hurricane, two to four could be a major hurricane, a Category 3 or above.
Despite its appearance, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted the convection was well ahead of the surface location of the tropical wave. Hurricane Earl, which struck Belize in July, was the last named storm of the season.
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