New tropical storm forms over Caribbean – NHC

MIAMI, (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Emily formed near  the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles islands today, far from oil  and gas-production facilities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Emily, the  fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was packing  maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour (65 kph).
It was located about 50 miles (80 km) west-southwest of  Dominica and was on a track across the northeastern Caribbean  to approach the island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican  Republic and Haiti, tomorrow night, the hurricane center  said.
The storm threatened to dump heavy rain on both Hispaniola  and Puerto Rico but posed no immediate threat to oil and gas  production facilities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
The hurricane center said Emily could intensify to  hurricane strength by the end of this week. Even if that  happened, the storm was unlikely to strengthen into more than a  low-level Category 1 hurricane, however.