Tropical Storm Humberto upgraded to hurricane status

In an advisory issued late Sunday night, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded Tropical Storm Humberto to hurricane status, making it the third hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. Humberto, now officially Hurricane Humberto, is a category 1 hurricane, and as of Sunday night had no associated hurricane watches or warning.

The NHC's Hurricane Humberto Advisory Number 14, released at 11:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday (0300 UTC Monday morning) placed Humberto 785 miles (1260 kilometers) west of Bermuda. According to data collected by one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's "Hurricane Hunters", Humberto had maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 kilometers per hour) and was moving northeast at 3 mph (6 kph).

On Saturday, Humberto hovered to the east of Great Abaco Island for a few hours, but once it moved on the Bahamian government withdrew its tropical storm warnings. According to the Miami Herald, Humberto is not expected to make landfall in the United States or in the Bahamas. The NHC, as of Sunday night, had no outstanding hurricane warnings.

Tropical Storm Humberto was the eighth named storm of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, and became its third hurricane. Forming in July 2019, Hurricane Barry was the first hurricane of the season, and it was followed by Hurricane Dorian in late August.

Tropical storms and hurricanes are both forms of tropical cyclones. On the Saffir–Simpson scale, which is used by the NHC for classifying tropical cyclones, category 1 hurricanes must sustain winds of at least 74 miles per hour. The cut-off for a category 2 hurricane, the next stronger classification, is 119 mph.