“The forecasts keep at as a tropical storm for the next five days and then it will begin to track northward. That would keep it about 600 miles east of Florida. It’s something we’ll want to keep an eye on,” said Tony Cristaldi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Melbourne.
"The official forecast calls for modest strengthening during the next 36 hours followed by a leveling off of intensity thereafter," the hurricane center forecasters said.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami says the storm has maximum sustained winds near 40 mph (65 kph) Tuesday and some slow strengthening is expected.
The storm had top sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) and was centered 945 miles (1,525 km) east of the Lesser Antilles. It was moving west to west-northwest on a path that could take it well east of the Bahamas by the weekend.
Colin is the third tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
The storm was expected to keep away from the Gulf of Mexico, where U.S. oil and natural gas operations are concentrated and where BP Plc (BP.L)(BP.N) is working to permanently seal a ruptured oil well that caused the biggest offshore spill in U.S. history.
It was too early to know whether Colin could eventually threaten the U.S. East Coast.
