On the heels of Hurricane Harvey, Tropical Storm Irma forms; U.S. impact unknown
Doyle Rice
For a nation reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, on Wednesday came some unwelcome news: Another possible threat was brewing.
Tropical Storm Irma has formed in the central Atlantic Ocean, the National Hurricane Center said. It poses no immediate threat to land, and it's too early to know its track, forecasters said.
As of 5 p.m. ET, Irma had 60-mph winds. It was located about 2,000 miles east of the Leeward Islands and about 3,000 miles southeast of Miami.
Irma was moving to the west at 13 mph.
The storm is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane Thursday or Friday, with winds estimated at 75 mph. A tropical storm becomes a hurricane when its sustained winds reach 74 mph.
Irma will take about a week to make its trek west across the Atlantic Ocean, AccuWeather said.
WeatherBell meteorologist Ryan Maue said Irma will likely become an intense hurricane, with Category 4 or 5 strength, near the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean.
A Category 4 storm has winds of at least 130 mph.
"It is way too soon to say with certainty where and if this system will impact the U.S.," AccuWeather hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski cautioned
Possibilities range from a landfall on the Leeward Islands in the northeastern Caribbean to the Carolinas and the island nation of Bermuda — and everything in between, he said.
Yet another storm could spin up in the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend. If this system does develop, it could bring additional rainfall to portions of the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
Meanwhile, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, a developing system that's expected to become Tropical Storm Lidia later Wednesday has prompted a hurricane watch for portions of Mexico's Baja Peninsula.
This includes Cabo San Lucas.
Tropical storm warnings are also in effect for the Baja as well as the west coast of Mexico.
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