Miami – Tropical Storm Debby weakened off the coast of the Cape Verde islands in the eastern Atlantic on Wednesday and posed no immediate threat to land, forecasters said.
The storm’s top sustained winds had slowed to about 45 mph from about 50 mph earlier in the day, well below the 74-mph threshold for a hurricane. Slow strengthening was forecast for today.
The fourth named storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season was centered about 610 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde islands, which are about 350 miles off the African coast.
Debby was moving northwest at about 20 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
“We are forecasting it to become a hurricane in about four days, but we do see some factors that could prevent that,” senior hurricane specialist Richard Pasch said.
There were hopeful signs that the storm would stay out at sea and not reach the U.S., senior hurricane specialist James Franklin said.
