Hurricane Nigel to ramp up to Category 2 storm Tuesday and turn to the northwest

Hurricane Nigel formed Monday, and National Hurricane Center forecasters expect it to intensify into a Category 2 hurricane by Tuesday.

Its top wind speeds could reach up to 110 mph, forecasters said Monday.

As of 5 p.m. Eastern time Monday, Nigel’s maximum sustained winds were at 80 mph, about 810 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and moving northwest at 12 mph.

Nigel is expected to be a fast-moving storm, generally headed north in the central tropical Atlantic through Tuesday before turning to the northeast, on a trajectory that sends it to the seas between Ireland and Iceland.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles from Nigel’s center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 160 miles.

The National Hurricane Center is also watching a tropical wave that is forecast to emerge off the west coast of Africa by Wednesday and potentially become a tropical depression. As of 2 p.m. Monday, forecasters are giving the system a 70% chance of developing in the next seven days while it moves west across the eastern Atlantic.

Forecasters also are monitoring a non-tropical area of low pressure that could form near the southeast coast of the United States late this week. This system is forecast to move north or northwest and “could acquire some subtropical characteristics if it remains offshore,” according to the latest advisory. It has a 30% chance to develop in the next seven days.

The next named storm would be Ophelia.

The National Hurricane Center, which operates under the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, has forecast 14 to 21 named storms for the 2023 Atlantic season and six to 11 hurricanes, two to five of which would be major hurricanes.

As of Sept 18, there have been 15 named storms, five hurricanes – three of which were major hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or above. Those were Hurricane Lee, a rare Category 5; Hurricane Franklin, a Category 4; and Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend region at Category 3 strength on Aug. 30.

Hurricane season officially runs through Nov. 30.