Tropical Storm Teddy has become a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday.
Teddy is likely to become a major hurricane in the next day or so, and forecasters said it could reach Category 4 strength before closing in on Bermuda, which took a direct hit from Hurricane Paulette only days ago.
On Wednesday afternoon, Teddy was located about 700 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, the chain of islands between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and was moving northwest.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 220 miles.
Forecasters said the storm wasn’t strengthening on Wednesday but was expected to “intensify more soon.”
The storm is sending large swells to the Lesser Antilles and the northeastern coast of South America, the National Hurricane Center said. The center warned the swells are “likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”
Meanwhile, as Hurricane Sally slowly made its way ashore at the Florida-Alabama border, nearly 540,000 homes and businesses had lost electricity across the region. Sally weakened to a tropical storm but was dumping feet of rain and prompting the rescue of hundreds of people.
