Hurricane Tammy strengthens in open waters of the Atlantic heading northeast and will become "a powerful cyclone" on Thursday

Hurricane Tammy strengthened in open waters of the Atlantic and presented maximum sustained winds of 165 kilometers per hour this Wednesday, with additional strengthening expected.

According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC, in English), the Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with a maximum of 5, will possibly become “a powerful post-tropical cyclone” on Thursday.

Tammy is located about 825 kilometers southeast of Bermuda, a British island territory that could feel the effects of a tropical storm due to this cyclone towards the weekend.

The hurricane is moving northeast at 20 kilometers per hour and a turn to the north is forecast this afternoon.

Although it is hundreds of kilometers from the Caribbean islands, Tammy is responsible for dangerous waves in the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the British and US Virgin Islands, the NHC warned.

20 tropical storms in the Atlantic

The center of Tammy made landfall in Barbados on Saturday night, leaving no victims or major material damage, according to local media.

Over the course of this year, 20 tropical storms, a depression and 7 hurricanes have formed, and one of them, Lee, reached category 5, the maximum on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.

In an update released last August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted an “above normal” Atlantic hurricane season, with the formation of between 14 and 21 tropical storms, which between 6 and 11 would be hurricanes.