HAMILTON (Reuters) - Bermuda issued a tropical storm warning on Saturday as a weakening Hurricane Bertha came to a virtual standstill nearby, not close enough to bring significant winds but enough to whip up the surf.
The tropical storm warning meant storm-force winds wereexpected to affect the mid-Atlantic British colony within thenext 24 hours, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
On Saturday morning though, the skies were clear and thesun bright as Bermudians went about their business payinglittle apparent heed to the hurricane 215 miles (345 km) to thesoutheast of the wealthy offshore finance centre.
Bertha, the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricaneseason and a wake-up call to oil markets already nervous aboutcrude supply, had barely moved for several hours, theMiami-based hurricane centre said.
At 2 p.m. EDT (7 p.m. British time) the storm's topsustained winds had slipped to 80 miles per hour (130 km perhour), according to data collected by a "hurricane hunter"aircraft sent into the hurricane.
"Bertha has been meandering for the past several hours andlittle motion is expected today. However, Bertha should beginto move toward the north near 2 mph (4 kph) later tonight," thehurricane centre said.
"On this track, the centre of Bertha is expected to slowlypass to the southeast and east of Bermuda, but the motion couldoccasionally be erratic."
Bermuda has tough building codes and its 66,000 people areconsidered among the most storm-conscious in the region,meaning tropical storm conditions would be very unlikely topose a threat to the territory, a major tourist resort.
Bertha formed early in the hurricane season near the coastof Africa, giving some credibility to predictions that thisyear would be quite busy for storms. Hurricane activity doesnot usually get into high gear in the Atlantic until August.
Energy markets pay close attention to Atlantic hurricanesbecause of their potential to wreak havoc among the oil rigs inthe Gulf of Mexico that supply the United States with a thirdof its domestically produced crude.
Bertha was never viewed as a threat to the Gulf but wasbriefly seen as a possible menace to the U.S. East Coast beforethe storm turned northward toward Bermuda.
An average Atlantic storm season, which begins on June 1and runs to the end of November, has around 10 tropical storms,of which six reach hurricane strength with winds in excess of74 mph (119 kph).
The record-busting 2005 season, which included HurricaneKatrina, spawned 28 storms.
(Reporting by Lilla Zuill, Writing by Michael Christie,Editing by Jackie Frank)
