Tropical Storm Kyle Expected Gain Hurricane Strength Within 24 Hours

September 27, 2008 6:54 a.m. EST

Miami, FL (AHN) - Tropical Storm Kyle is strengthening in the Atlantic Ocean and is nearly a hurricane as it passes Bermuda Saturday morning, although Kyle is still wedged between two systems that are over the Carolinas, forecasters say the forecast track is shifting.

In its 5 a.m advisory, U.S. National Hurricane Center forecasters said that Kyle was about 300 miles west-southwest of Bermuda moving north-northwest at about 15 mph. It had sustained winds of nearly 70 mph with occasional higher gusts and tropical force winds extend outward 205 miles from its center.

Forecasters say Kyle should become a hurricane within the next 24 hours.

Kyle is the 11th named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane season.

Although it is still too early to predict exactly how Kyle will affect the United States, forecasters think it will affect the northeastern United States.

At this point "Kyle remains wedged between a large deep-layer ridge to the east and a deep-layer but weakening low to the west over Western North Carolina," forecasters say.

The combined southerly to south-southerly flow between these two systems is expected to gradually accelerate Kyle northward today and then north-northeast on Sunday.

Various surface tracks have shifted, so there is uncertainty over where Kyle will go. One model has Kyle passing closer to Cape Cod than originally thought, while another forecast puts Kyle over the northeastern U.S. and the Canadian Maritimes region. Other tracks put Kyle closer to eastern New England and coastal areas there.

But forecasters say it is still to early to know where Kyle will go.