Storm Sam has strengthened into a hurricane in the open Atlantic and could rapidly intensify into a major hurricane by Friday night or early Saturday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The hurricane was about 1,470 miles (2,365 km) east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands, packing maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 kilometers per hour), the NHC said, adding there were no coastal warnings in effect as of now.