REGION – STORM WATCH – Monitoring TS Teddy

Large swells generated by Tropical Storm Teddy are expected to reach the Lesser Antilles and the northeastern coast of South America on Wednesday.

And forecasters at the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) warned that “these swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”

The NHC said at 5 a.m. AST (0900 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Teddy was located near latitude 13.7 North, longitude 46.0 West. Teddy, it said, was moving toward the west-northwest near 12 mph (19 km/h), and a west-northwest to northwest track is anticipated during the next few days.

Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 60 mph (95 km/h) with higher gusts.

“Strengthening is forecast for the next several days, and Teddy is likely to become a hurricane late today and could reach major hurricane strength in a few days,” the NHC forecast stated.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles (185 km) from the center.

Meantime the NHC said Hurricane Paulette was located several hundred miles northeast of Bermuda; Hurricane Sally was centered over the north-central Gulf of Mexico; and Tropical Storm Vicky was located over the eastern tropical Atlantic.