Hurricane Martin moving farther northeast; Lisa downgraded to a tropical storm

Hurricane Lisa was downgraded to a tropical storm by Thursday, a day after making landfall southwest of Belize City as the season’s sixth hurricane.

Hurricane Martin, which also formed Wednesday, was forecast to become a “large and powerful” extra-tropical cyclone Thursday in the north-central Atlantic Ocean, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.

And, experts are also monitoring two areas in the Atlantic for potential storm development, one of which could develop into a tropical storm early next week, according to the hurricane center.

Martin had top winds of 85 mph at 5 a.m. Thursday and was moving north-northeast at 46 mph roughly 665 miles east-southeast of Newfoundland, Canada. Martin is expected to transition to a powerful extratropical system on Thursday. It is no threat to land.

As of 8 a.m., Lisa was a weakening tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and moving west at 10 mph, the hurricane center said. Lisa is forecast to move back over water, enter the Bay of Campeche off Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and weaken to a tropical depression.

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Forecasters are also monitoring a third possible storm, an area of low pressure in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. It could move into the eastern Caribbean and develop early next week,, the hurricane center said in its latest advisory. It has 30% chance of developing as it moves northwest.

A second area of low pressure located several hundred miles north-northeast of Bermuda has been given only a 10% chance of developing.

There have been two major hurricanes, meaning Category 3 or above, so far this season.

NOAA has predicted at least four more hurricanes will form before hurricane season officially ends on Nov. 30.

The next named storm to form will be Nicole.