MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Katia strengthened rapidly over the open Atlantic on Sunday, bulking up to a powerful Category 2 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The Miami-based hurricane center said it was still too soon to gauge the potential threat to land or to the U.S. East Coast from the storm, but cautioned that it was well worth keeping an eye on Katia due to a westward shift in its track over warm seas.
"It would be a good idea for people on the (U.S.) East Coast just to keep watching this storm," said Robbie Berg, an NHC hurricane specialist.
"There is so much uncertainty in this forecast, it's really too early to say what kind of impacts we might see," Berg told Reuters.
At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), Katia had top sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (160 km per hour) and was located about 360 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, the NHC said.
It said Katia could become a "major" hurricane by Monday, with maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph.
Uncertainty over the storm's track was partly due to Tropical Storm Lee over the Gulf of Mexico and the effect it could have on Katia's circulation, Berg said.
Most computer models showed Katia turning north-northeast after moving safely west of the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda later this week, with no threat to the U.S. mainland. But some models still put the storm on a track to potentially hit the U.S. eastern seaboard.
Several U.S. states, including New Jersey and Vermont, are still recovering from extensive flooding caused by Hurricane Irene, which rampaged up the East Coast last weekend.
One way or another, Katia was expected to buffet Bermuda with rough seas and surf swells early this week, the NHC said.
Katia is the second hurricane of the June-through-November Atlantic hurricane season.
(Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Eric Beech)
