[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).
Then tell the Africans to stop farting.
if that was only so...the northern continent of africa is full of pagan religions and practices and divinations that disturb winds. You should pray for their conversion to the One True God.
So far this looks to be a "fish" storm – one that recurves before reaching land, but stay tuned, just in case...
Just stay out of New England.
wrong o – it takes a butterfly
ArtinChicago:
Lmao!
Well-played, sir!
Ahhh, media fear mongering continues...
You asked when do we get Hurricane "Dick". It's in 2016 (Richard).......
Hey BotchedMan i mean Bachmann what is God saying now? Oklahoma is burning and another Hurricane is coming , what did God tell you? Idiot
Everyone knows that a hurricane is started from someone flushing the toilet... or is it a tornado?
now actually hit NYC this time.
Katia replaced Katrina on one of the lists of hurricane names, FYI.
They should be all named after women after all it is called Mother Earth.
I am still waiting on Hurricane Shaniqua or Tyrone.
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Oh no, have a flight to DR on monday....I hope Katia stays as a small storm and nothing else.
Ignorant.