Gaston heads toward Caribbean

Reuters: Tropical Storm Gaston, the seventh named storm of this Atlantic hurricane season, on Thursday was churning west in the central Atlantic on a path that could take it into the Caribbean Sea. Gaston was expected to strengthen gradually over the next 48 hours and could become a hurricane by Sunday or Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.

The storm was located about 1,550 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, moving west at nine miles per hour with maximum sustained winds unchanged from late Wednesday at about 40 mph. Most early computer models showed the system tracking in a westerly direction into the Caribbean, but it was too early to tell whether Gaston would enter the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico….

NOAA GOES Satellite image of Tropical Storm Gaston as of 00:15UTC on 2 September 2010