Katia a hurricane; new storm in Gulf

Katia is expected to strengthen during the next two days and could become a major hurricane by the weekend.

• A cluster of storms is forming over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico
• The storm is more than a 1,000 miles east of the Leeward Islands
• Katia is the second hurricane of the Atlantic season

• Hurricanes and Cyclones
• Leeward Islands
• Weather

(CNN) -- Less than a week after Irene ravaged much of the East Coast, Hurricane Katia roared to life in the central Atlantic with winds of 75 mph, forecasters said.

By late Wednesday night, the Category 1 storm -- the second hurricane of the Atlantic season -- was about 1165 miles east of the Leeward Islands, spinning to the north-northwest at 20 mph.

Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours and Katia could become a major hurricane by the weekend, the hurricane center said.

The extended forecast map shows the storm passing north of the Caribbean.

Elsewhere, forecasters saw the potential for a new tropical storm that could hit the U.S. Gulf Coast over the weekend.

A cluster of storms over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico could become a tropical depression by Thursday with the help of upper-level winds that are forecast to aid development, the National Hurricane Center said.

"Most computer models are developing this into at least a tropical storm, if not a hurricane within the next two days," CNN Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said.

"There is a ton of potential for flooding," Jeras said. "One computer model solution here (puts) as much as 6 to 12 inches of rain on the Gulf Coast by Saturday morning."

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