Depression in Atlantic may become Tropical Storm Debby
Tuesday, August 22, 2006; Posted: 12:01 p.m. EDT (16:01 GMT)
Florida (AP) -- The outer bands of a tropical depression produced rain squalls in the southern Cape Verde islands in the far eastern Atlantic as it passed the nation on Tuesday, forecasters said.
It was expected to become a tropical storm by Wednesday and would take the name Debby.
At 11 a.m. ET, the depression was centered 140 miles southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde islands and was moving toward the west-northwest at about 17 mph.
The storm's maximum sustained wind speed was near 35 mph, 4 mph below the threshold for a tropical storm and well below hurricane strength of 74 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters said the system was expected to turn northwestward.
Long-range forecasts show the storm nearing Bermuda in about a week. It was still too early to tell if it would hit land, senior hurricane specialist James Franklin said.
The government of Cape Verde, 350 miles off the African coast, discontinued a tropical storm warning as the system passed.
There have been three named storms of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season.
