Tropical Storm Gabrielle forms in Atlantic; Tropical depression in Pacific

TORONTO – It didn’t take long for an Atlantic tropical depression to form into a tropical storm.

Tropical depression 7, which formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday afternoon, quickly strengthened Wednesday evening. Just one hour before midnight, the storm strengthened into Tropical Storm Gabrielle.

The storm was located southwest of Puerto Rico.

By 8 a.m. Thursday morning, Gabrielle’s maximum sustained winds reached 65 km/h. The storm was about 105 km south-southwest of Ponce, Puerto Rico, moving about 14 km/h.

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Both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have issued tropical storm warnings.

Gabrielle was expected to pass over the southwestern part of Puerto Rico Thursday morning before moving east of the Turks and Caicos Islands on Friday.

In the Pacific, Tropical Depression Twelve-E formed off the southwestern coast of Mexico early Thursday morning.

As of 5 a.m., the storm had maximum sustained winds near 55 km/h and was moving northwest around 9 km/h.

Twelve-E is expected to strengthen on Thursday.