[Updated at 11:12 p.m. ET] Tropical Storm Katia was strengthening in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday and could become a hurricane on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said.
In its 11 p.m. ET advisory, the hurricane center said Katia has maximum sustained winds of 60 mph - up from 45 mph 12 hours earlier. The storm was in the open Atlantic about 1,700 miles east-southeast of the Caribbean Sea's Leeward Islands.
Katia was moving west-northwest near 22 mph. That general motion was expected to continue for the next two days, though the forward speed could decrease, the hurricane center said.
Katia could grow into a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph by Saturday evening, perhaps more than 500 miles east of the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico, the hurricane center said. It is too early to predict whether the storm will threaten land.
Category 3 hurricanes have maximum sustained winds of 111 to 130 mph.
Katia is the storm name that replaced Katrina in the revolving list of names, according to the center. The list of Atlantic hurricane names is repeated every seven years, and this year the list that was used in 2005 is being reused.
A storm name is retired if it is used for a hurricane that caused major damage, as Katrina did to the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005.
"The only time that there is a change is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for obvious reasons of sensitivity," the hurricane center said.
[Updated at 5:42 p.m. ET] Tropical Storm Katia was strengthening in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday and could become a hurricane on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said.
In its 5 p.m. ET advisory, the hurricane center said Katia has maximum sustained winds of 60 mph - up from 45 mph six hours earlier. The storm was about 750 miles west of the southernmost of the Cape Verde Islands, which are hundreds of miles off the west coast of Africa.
Katia was moving west-northwest near 20 mph.
[Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET] In its 11 a.m. ET advisory, the hurricane center said Katia has maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. The storm was in the open Atlantic about 630 miles west-southwest of the southernmost of the Cape Verde Islands. It was moving west-northwest at 18 mph. That general motion was expected to continue for the next few days.
[Updated at 5:25 a.m. ET] Tropical Storm Katia barreled across the Atlantic Ocean early Tuesday and is expected to intensify and accelerate, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
As of 5 a.m. ET, Katia was about 535 miles (855 kilometers) west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands and carried maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph).
Not again? Another "major" hurricane? Stop the media frenzy. The last one was bad but it wasn't the drama we saw on every TV screen, only to hear it "plop". Why don't we wait and see. When it's over we'll know how bad it was.
You wait out the next hurricane and let us know how it works out for you.. Tell my neighbor he should have waited, his home is gone., he's glad he went to a shelter. 3 days no power and power company says maybe a week or so..
Well Squidly like they... well, that will happen!!
What we really need is a tropical storm on the Texas coast so we can get some rain in central Texas and I can stop spending my life savings on hay to keep my horses going. The news is all about storms and flooding, but no one thinks about sending a little help to the people who are loseing everything they have worked all their lives for from the drought and fires. Of course if it was federal money, Perry wouldn't take it anyway. He is such a selfish a**!
If I could I'd send you some of our rain.. My home weather station has measured over 17" of rain in the last week. Hope y'all get some rain soon..
Wow!!! I thought you people in Texas could take care of yourselves and don't need the government or the rest of union! Now that you're having a drought you want someone to "send you a little help!"
Sorry for your difficulties, but let's face it, when the state's governor decides to take action on you drought problems by "praying it away" the rest of the country's not going to take you too seriously. Sounds like he's miles aways from declaring a state of emergency there, which would activate federal assistance...but then again, he's miles away anyway since all he cares about now is becoming president. By the same token, if your worst concern is paying for your horses' hay, then you might want to get a little perspective. People have lost their lives and their homes in this storm, and depending on their jobs, may have lost or had serious impacts on their livelihoods.
People are sick and you post it. You are sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can thank Both the Democrats and Republicans for that. In fact... the blame would fall mostly upon Republicans going back through the last 3 Republican Presidencies. Case in point is the fiscal irresponsibility of our former President when he created Medicare Part D and did nothing in the way of decreasing spending or increasing taxation to pay for it. Firing his financial adviser over disputes in regards to his fiscal practices.. who later publicly stated that he was "Relieved" when he was discharged from that duty.
Yes ignorant. The US economy was in the gutter before he came into office. Im not placing the economy blame on any one person. I believe it was a combination of events especially the housing bubble. Your blaming of Obama for the economy is like blaming a firefighter for not putting out a house fire that started way before he or she showed up.
I hear you Peter!! Hurobama will destroy everything. 4 more years!! 4 more years!!! I can't wait till we are a third world country. Look at all of those peopel crying now on this thread after you spoke bably of their savior. They are the ingorant ones who voted him into office.
all at wwwTheDimensionMachineDOTcom
You're an idiot. When exactly did the housing market downfall get set up and tipped over? During W's reign. When did that cause millions of people's jobs to go in the crapper? During W's reign. Sure, the effects still linger, but you can't blame Obama for that. Of course, you're probably one of those knee-jerk right wingers who would claim it was Obama's fault that London was destroyed if W had fired a nuke at London right before Obama took the oath office and it hit right after he was sworn in. That's OK, you'll see. You idiots will probably manage to get a terrible Rep candidate elected president next time (the polls say none of you really care that much about your own candidates so far). And things will still suck, and you'll have nobody left to blame.
So sorry that Irene did not kill millions of people and wipe out the entire East Coast of the US. Stick around and maybe you will get your wish. Another one is brewing. Maybe it will kill hundreds of thousands like you are hoping for. Maybe you will be standing on the beach laughing when a huge wave washes you away so you can be one of the people who were killed and then you can be satisfied that the forecast was spot-on for once. Lucky you!
what is wrong with you???
Debbbie whatever-your-fake-name-is...it's called sarcasm. If you're really going to venture into the big adult world of 'Comments' you might want to learn to recognize it.
Don't forget hurricane Bushy who put America in the financial toilet. And two needless wars. Obama has made mistakes, but it will take more than one term to fix old Bushy's mess. And I'm a republican.
You should probably go die
I predict this one is not even going to come close to the US. CNN and the Weather Channel will promote this one for the next five day to be the Hurricane of the Century to boost their ratings.
Yeah, because for a hurricane to be relevant it has to hit the US. Who cares if it may wipe out a few thousand people in the Caribbean.
Quick, evacuate the entire eastern seaboard just in case! Expect strong winds, rain and wall to wall CNN hyped coverage
Everyone knew this storm was coming several days in advance. I you are "stranded" on an island, or without water, or withour electricity, or food, or whatever.....it is because you were too stupid to heed the warning.
Let me guess, you are stupid and the federal government needs to bail you out.......
The federal government is the reason millions of people got a warning at all. If there were no NOAA, National Weather Service, Coast Guard, United States Geological Survey, etc. There would be no hurricane, earthquake, tornado, tropical storm, or flood warnings that would reach millions of people in time to evacuate!
Oh no, here comes Katia! Run for your lives! It will blow down trees and power poles, and rain puddles on your street! This is a DEADLY situation! Do not take any chances, evacuate now! People in low lying areas (like below sea level) need to be concerned! OMG this will be horriblleeeeeee!!!
http://tinyurl.com/2oovs
My 2 cents is why don't you spend sometime in the deceased shoes maybe it would be more significant for you
plus we wouldn't hear from you anymore.