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Washington: The first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season formed on Monday, hundreds of miles away from the United States, the US National Hurricane Center said.
The Miami-based center said it was still too early to determine if Bertha would eventually affect any land areas.
By 4:54 am EDT (0854 GMT), Hurricane Bertha was about 845 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands of the Caribbean and was moving toward the west-northwest at 17 miles per hour.
The storm's top winds had reached near 75 mph, just over the threshold at which tropical storms become hurricanes. The hurricane center said some additional strengthening was expected during the next couple of days.
Energy markets have paid close attention to storms in the Atlantic since the devastating 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, during which a number of powerful hurricanes ripped through the Gulf of Mexico, toppling oil rigs and severing pipelines.
More information about the hurricane is available at the National Hurricane Center's web site.
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