Hurricane Igor Becomes Season’s Most Powerful Storm
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Igor became the Atlantic season’s most powerful hurricane, packing winds of 150 miles per hour over open waters east of the Caribbean, and Tropical Storm Julia near the Cape Verde Islands is now the year’s 10th named system.
Igor, a “major” Category-4 storm, may intensify today into the first Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on the 5-step Saffir-Simpson scale in three years, the National Hurricane Center said on its website at 4:45 a.m. Miami time. The system was 940 miles (1,515 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands, heading west at 13 mph. While Igor isn’t forecast to hit land in the next five days, it may threaten Bermuda, the center said.