MIAMI (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Igor strengthened in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday and was expected to grow into a hurricane later in the day, but posed no immediate threat to land or energy interests.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Igor had top sustained winds of 70 miles per hour as it spun in the open sea, with its center about 915 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands.
Igor was moving west at 21 miles per hour and was expected to continue in this direction for the next two days, when it was expected to turn more to the west-northwest and northwest, forecasters at the Miami-based center said.
Computer models projected it would stay in the Atlantic and not enter the Gulf of Mexico, where U.S. oil and gas operations are clustered.
Tropical storms become hurricanes when their sustained winds reach 74 mph. Igor was expected to continue strengthening over the next three days and could become an intense and large hurricane, the forecasters said.
(Writing by Eric Walsh)
