If it reaches hurricane statues, Tropical Storm Humberto will be the first hurricane of the 2013 Atlantic season. So far, there have been eight named storms this year. Reuters/NASA
Tropical Storm Humberto continued to shape up to be the first hurricane of the 2013 season as it increased in strength on Tuesday.
This development comes at the same time that Tropical Storm Gabrielle is expected to rip through Bermuda with very strong winds, rain and a high storm surge, NBC News reports. The storm is forecast to pummel Bermuda Tuesday night through Wednesday.
The National Hurricane center has already issued several advisories for Humberto, but the storm is not currently forecast to be a major threat to land.
“Increasingly strong west to southwest winds expected to develop across the central Atlantic Ocean are expected to deflect this system well east of Bermuda,” The Weather Channel reported.
According to forecasters at the National Hurricane Center, Humberto was located over the northwest Caribbean Sea, traveling west at close to 10 mph. Its winds were around 65mph and it was expected to become a hurricane by late Tuesday. This season has been a fairly quiet one so far in the Atlantic, with no hurricanes having formed. Hurricane season -- which begins on June 1 -- enters its peak in September. It runs through the end of November.
Humberto is the eighth named storm of this season. If Humberto forms anytime after 8 a.m.. ET on Sept. 11, it will claim the record for the latest date for a hurricane to form during the history of the modern-day Atlantic season -- starting in the 1960s. That title currently belongs to 2002's Hurricane Gustav which formed on Sept. 11.
