Tropical Storm Bertha likely to become hurricane

July 07, 2008 12:44 am

— MIAMI (AP) — Forecasters say Tropical Storm Bertha likely will become the Atlantic season’s first hurricane on Monday.
At 11 p.m. EDT Sunday, Bertha was centered about 930 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands in the Caribbean.
Maximum sustained winds have increased to about 65 mph with some higher gusting.
The storm is moving toward the west-northwest at about 20 mph. It’s still too early to say if or where Bertha will hit land.
The first named storm this year, Arthur, formed in the Atlantic the day before the season officially started June 1 and soaked the Yucatan Peninsula.