FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Tropical Storm Chris, sitting virtually still a couple hundred miles off the Carolinas, is expected to become a hurricane on Tuesday and resume its journey toward the northeast, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It was no threat to the United States, but Canadian weather officials were monitoring Chris closely as its probable path takes it toward the vicinity of the Atlantic Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
Canada's official government weather agency, Environment Canada, began issuing tropical cyclone statements on Sunday.
This was the updated statement issued by Environment Canada on Monday morning:
"Tropical Storm Chris is currently off the Carolina coast. This storm is expected to remain somewhat stationary and become better organized today. By Tuesday it is forecast to start moving in a northeastward direction, gaining strength as it does so.
"By late Tuesday it is forecast to attain hurricane status. At this time it appears this storm could approach Nova Scotia by Thursday, likely weakening slightly as it does so.
"It has to be noted that there is a good deal of uncertainty at this time in the forecast track and intensity of this system. The Canadian Hurricane Center is closely monitoring this developing storm. If the current forecast track remains as is, it is likely that regularly issued bulletins will begin on this system by early Tuesday morning."
According to the Canadian forecasters, Chris' center is likely to be traveling northeast through the Atlantic a few hundred miles offshore of Nova Scotia by 9 a.m. Thursday. At that point Chris' wind speeds would be about 130 kilometers per hour, or about 80 miles per hour, making it a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest of hurricane categories.
By Friday morning, according to the Canadian Hurricane Centre, Chris' wind speeds would be about 95 km/h, or about 59 miles per hour, making it a tropical storm. Or, if the storm by that point was no longer a rotating storm with an eye but a swath of showers and thunderstorms, it could be a post-tropical storm.
Storms are classified as hurricanes when they reach maximum sustained wind speeds of 74 miles per hour or higher.
Tropical storms are cyclones with maximum wind speeds of between 39 and 73 miles per hour.
The storm's maximum sustained winds were 60 mph, according to the latest update on Monday morning from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.
The National Hurricane Center was projecting that Chris would approach the Atlantic Ocean waters off Nova Scotia by early Thursday morning. Like the Canadian forecast, the U.S. forecast kept the likely path of the center of the storm several hundred miles of the Nova Scotia coastline, but a portion of the so-called cone left open the small possibility that Chris could make a direct hit on Nova Scotia.
Surfers along the United States' east coast were no doubt paying attention to Chris _ although meteorologists were warning that the wave and rip current conditions from North Carolina to the mid-Atlantic as a result of Chris could be life-threatening.
