Storm forms off US Southeast coast, warning issued

MIAMI, Sep 8 (Reuters) Subtropical Storm Gabrielle formed yesterday off the US mid-Atlantic Coast with top sustained winds of 72 kph, but was not expected to strengthen in the next 24 hours, the US National Hurricane Center said.

Gabrielle, the seventh named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was about 625 km southeast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, the Miami-based hurricane center said in its first advisory on the storm at 11 pm local time (0830hrs IST today).

''Little change in strength is forecast during the next 24 hours,'' the center said. Top winds must reach at least 119 kph for a tropical or subtropical storm to become a hurricane.

A tropical storm watch was issued for parts of the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts. Gabrielle was moving west-northwest at around 16 kph.

''Coastal residents from Onslow County north along the Outer Banks are urged to take action now to protect any property that may be threatened by tropical storm conditions,'' the National Weather Service said in a statement late yesterday from Newport, North Carolina.

''Winds will start to reach tropical storm force along the coast on Sunday morning. At this point winds are expected to reach 72 to 89 km,'' it said.

Increasing swells and high tides would combine to produce dangerous rip currents along area beaches this weekend, it said.

Computer models indicated the weather system would most likely head northwestward toward the coast of North Carolina before looping around to the northeast and cooler waters.

It was very unlikely, however, the system could reach the top-rank strength of Hurricanes Dean and Felix, which slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in August and Central America this week respectively as Category 5 hurricanes on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric conditions off the US Southeast were nowhere near as favorable for tropical cyclones as in the western Caribbean, where Dean and Felix grew into monster storms, the hurricane center said earlier.

REUTERS SW HT1035