Tropical Storm Katia

Tropical Storm Katia to Grow Into Hurricane

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By Lynn Doan - Sep 1, 2011 6:16 AM GMT+0530

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Tropical Storm Katia, moving west- northwest across the Atlantic Ocean, is likely to strengthen into a hurricane tonight, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Katia, 1,285 miles (2,070 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean, had maximum winds near 70 miles per hour, up from 65 mph earlier today, the NHC said in an advisory at about 4:40 p.m. East Coast time. The storm, which will become a hurricane when its winds reach 74 mph, is traveling at 20 mph on a path that will take it to waters northeast of Puerto Ricoon Sept. 4, the Miami-based center said.

“Katia could become a major hurricane by the upcoming weekend as it passes north of the Lesser Antilles,” said Brian Edwards, a meteorologist for private forecaster AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania.

While the storm is forecast to turn north out to sea eventually, a shift westward could bring it to land in eastern Canada, according to AccuWeather. Canada’s Atlantic region, a major gasoline supplier for the Northeast, exported 469,704 cubic meters (2.96 million barrels) of the fuel in May, according to the country’s National Energy Board.

Katia is the 11th named storm of this Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. The NHC says the average hurricane season usually produces that many in total.

Gulf System

A system of clouds and thunderstorms over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico has a 60 percent chance of organizing into a tropical cyclone in the next two days, the hurricane center said in aweather outlook before 8 p.m. East Coast time.

“Interests along the entire northern Gulf of Mexico coast should monitor the progress of this disturbance,” the center said in its outlook.

BP Plc began removing more than 500 non-essential workers from some platforms in the Southern Green Canyon area, according to a message on the company’s hurricane hot line. The London- based company said it is preparing for a potential shut-in and full evacuation if necessary.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) evacuated non-essential workers from its Gunnison, Nansen and Boomvang platforms in the western Gulf, according to a notice on the Woodlands, Texas-based company’s website.

Landfall in Texas

“If that storm develops, it will likely sit in the Gulf for a couple days,” said Sean Miller, project manager for Kinetic Analysis Corp., a Silver Spring, Maryland-based firm that predicts the effects of disasters. “Right now the models are pretty divergent as to where it will make landfall, but it will probably be somewhere in southern Texas.”

Apache Corp. (APA), Chevron Corp. (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Enbridge Inc. (ENB), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) and Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) said they are monitoring the system.

The Gulf is home to 31 percent of U.S. oil output and 7 percent of the country’s natural gas production.

In the Pacific, a tropical depression northwest of Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, was “weakening rapidly,” according to a hurricane center advisory issued before 5 p.m. East Coast time. The government of Mexico discontinued a tropical storm watch for an area from Zihuatanejo to Punta San Telmo.

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bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-31/tropical-storm-katia-expected-to-grow-into-hurricane-tonight-nhc-says.html