© Reuters/NOAATropical Storm Katia in a satellite image taken August 30, 2011.
Tropical Storm Katia strengthened into a hurricane over the Atlantic on Wednesday, while another mass of thunderstorms that could become a named storm this week triggered evacuations of some oil workers from the Gulf of Mexico.
Katia had sustained winds of 75 miles per hour and was the second hurricane of the June-through-November Atlantic hurricane season, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The Miami-based center said Katia was forecast to become a "major" hurricane with winds over 111 mph by the weekend but it was too early to tell whether it would threaten land.
At 11 p.m. (0300 GMT Thursday), Katia was about 1,165 miles east of the Caribbean's Leeward Islands. It was moving rapidly west-northwest and was forecast to turn northwest in a couple of days on a course that would keep it away from the Caribbean islands.
Hurricane Irene rampaged up the U.S. East Coast over the weekend and authorities on the U.S. Atlantic seaboard are keeping an eye on Katia to see which path it takes.
