Tropical Storm Dorian, the fourth named summer storm of the year, has formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean but is currently no threat to land.
According to the
National Weather Service, Tropical Storm Dorian could sail north of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic toward the Bahamas by Monday if it continues along it current track.
Tropical Storm Dorian strengthened overnight Wednesday and sustained wind increased to 60 mph Thursday morning, reported Ken Kaye, of the Sun-Sentinel in Florida.
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Forecasters told
The Associated Press Wednesday reported Dorian had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. Sustained winds has to reach 74 mph to be characterized as a hurricane.
As of Wednesday, the storm's center was located off the coast of west African, about 615 miles west of the Cape Verde Island. National Weather Service told the AP that the storm is moving west-northwest at about 20 mph.
Eric Berger, of the
Houston Chronicle, said while storms this far in the Atlantic is fairly unpredictable, trends suggest that the southern Florida area may be threatened.
"Typically westward moving storms begin to curve to the northwest as they approach the United States, so the long term track suggests Dorian, if it holds together, may begin to pose a threat to Florida in about one week’s time, or perhaps the U.S. East Coast a little bit after that," Berger said on the Chronicle's weather blog on Wednesday.
"However those of you who follow storms recognize there’s a lot of uncertainty in storm track forecasts after about five days' time, so the final fate of Dorian remains in question," Berger added.
Kaye said in his Storm Center blog with the Sun-Sentinel that some models have story taking a sharp turn northwest into sea, possibly brushing Newfoundland, Canada along the way.
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The last named storm, Hurricane Chantel, hit the Dominican Republic and Haiti then dissipated into the Atlantic, according to USA Today.
In the Pacific Ocean, Tropical Storm Flossie formed a little more than 1,000 miles off the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California, according to the Miami Herald. Flossie has managed maximum sustained winds are near 40 mph and is expected to slowly strengthen over the next two days, added the Miami Herald.
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