Hurricane Humberto strengthens to Category 4 storm

Hurricane Humberto grew to a Category 4 storm Friday and is expected to strengthen further, forecasters said, but it is predicted to stay out to sea and far from the U.S. East Coast.

The storm, one of two weather systems in the Atlantic, had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph around 11 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said in an update.

There were no coastal watches or warnings late Friday. The forecast track shows a predicted path northwest and then north and northeast, passing between the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda, according to the hurricane center.

A second disturbance is expected to strengthen to a tropical storm and could affect the U.S.

Potential Tropical Cyclone 9 was northwest of Cuba late Friday and was expected to become a tropical storm over the weekend, the hurricane center said.

“The system is expected to be at or near hurricane intensity when it approaches the southeast U.S. coast early next week, where there is a risk of storm surge and wind impacts,” the center said in a forecast discussion late Friday.

A tropical storm warning was in place for the Central Bahamas and a tropical storm watch was in place for parts of the northwest Bahamas, the agency said Friday.

Maximum sustained winds for that storm were 35 mph Friday night, it said. A tropical storm has sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph.

The disturbance could bring up to a foot of rain for eastern Cuba and 4 to 8 inches of rain to the Bahamas.

It is forecast to move north next to Florida’s Atlantic coast and toward South Carolina by Monday and Tuesday, according to the hurricane center’s map of its possible track.

“There is significantly more uncertainty in the track forecast after day 3, but at the very least it appears that the system will slow down considerably and perhaps even stall near the coast of South Carolina,” the agency said in the forecast discussion.