Hurricane forecasters have officially declared Gabrielle as the newest tropical storm in the Atlantic, as its uncertain path could take it near the US East Coast.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded Wednesday morning’s tropical depression into a named storm just hours after it formed in the central Atlantic.
Gabrielle’s sustained winds have increased to more than 45 mph, and meteorologists have predicted that the tropical storm is entering a region which will continue to fuel it this week.
Current forecasts show the tropical storm will likely turn into a hurricane as early as Sunday and it will barrel into Bermuda by Monday.
Early spaghetti models of the tropical storm’s path show it could be headed for the East Coast next week, threatening several states from the Carolinas to New England with hurricane-strength wind and rain.
AccuWeather’s lead hurricane expert, Alex DaSilva, warned that Gabrielle is currently in an area with ‘low wind shear and increased mid-level moisture.’
That means the storm will have ideal weather to form a more focused and organized structure, seen with most giant tropical cyclones.
‘Rough surf and dangerous rip currents will be possible along the East Coast during the middle to late portions of next week,’ the AccuWeather team warned Wednesday.