Tropical Storm Humberto is strengthening in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean, but is starting to move away from the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa as it pushes farther west.

Humberto will continue to gather strength the next few days and could become a hurricane by midweek. If this happens, Humberto would be the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2013 season.

With that said, thanks to the Bermuda-Azores high becoming more of an "Azores high", coupled with a tropical upper-tropospheric trough (TUTT) nosing southwestward from the Mediterranean into the eastern Atlantic, this new tropical storm is likely to turn toward the northwest or north by mid-to-late week.

Increasingly strong west to southwest winds expected to develop across the central Atlantic Ocean are expected to deflect this system well east of Bermuda. It is no threat to the Caribbean Sea or mainland U.S.

Projected Path

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/tropical-depression-nine-storm-hurricane-humberto-20130907