Trio of storms swirls in Atlantic and Caribbean

Reuters: A trio of potentially dangerous storms swirled over the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, as Tropical Storm Karl formed in the Caribbean on a path that could take it over oil-production facilities in Mexico's Bay of Campeche. The threat posed by Karl, which forecasters say will enter the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico, came as Tropical Storm Julia grew in the far eastern Atlantic into the fifth hurricane of the Atlantic storm season and Hurricane Igor remained a dangerous Category 4 storm.

Neither hurricane posed an immediate threat to land or energy interests, but Igor could threaten Bermuda by the weekend. Karl, located about 230 miles east of Chetumal, Mexico, had maximum sustained winds of about 45 miles per hour on Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was expected to churn west-northwest across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday and then plow into the Bay of Campeche in the southwest Gulf of Mexico before moving inland in central Mexico.

The system was expected to miss key U.S. oil and natural gas rigs in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico. But forecasters said the storm, which some computer models showed becoming a Category 1 hurricane, could hit Mexican oil interests….

Tropical Storm Karl yesterday