Tropical storm forms off US Southeast coast

MIAMI, Sep 8 (Reuters) Tropical Storm Gabrielle formed on yesterday off the US mid-Atlantic Coast with top sustained winds of 72 kph, but was not seen strengthening 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 tropical storm at 11 pm local time (0830 hrs IST today).

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

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

Computer models used to forecast future storm tracks 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 AS0905