Katia strengthening; too early to determine threat

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Tropical Storm Katia was gaining strength today in the Atlantic Ocean and is likely to become a hurricane, but forecasters said it was too soon to determine where it might head.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami cautioned the public — still recovering along parts of the East Coast from Irene — not to stress over the storm yet, even though it’s over warm waters and in a low wind shear environment, two ingredients that could propel it to become a major hurricane.

“It’s got a lot of ocean to go. There’s no way at this point to say if it will make any impacts, let alone when it might make them,” said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman at the National Hurricane Center. “There’s a reason we don’t do forecasts more than five days in advance — the information just isn’t good. The error beyond that just isn’t acceptable.”

As of 11 a.m., Katia was centered about 1,100 miles (1,765 kilometers) west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands and was moving west-northwest near 21 mph (33 kph).

Maximum sustained winds were near 65 mph (100 kph) Wednesday, just shy of the hurricane threshold of 74 mph. It was expected to continue strengthening over the next day or two.