Tropical Storm Delta heads for Canary Islands

MIAMI - Tropical Storm Delta intensified to near hurricane-strength in the Atlantic Ocean and threatened to lash Spain's Canary Islands as it raced toward northwest Africa, forecasters at the US National Hurricane Centre said.

Delta is the 25th named storm of the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1 and ends on Wednesday.

At 4pm EST (10.00am NZT), the storm was centred about 1040km west of La Palma in the Canary Islands and speeding northeast at 43km/h.

It was expected to move over or just north of the Canary Islands on Monday, sending gale-force winds across the islands and over the coast of Morocco.

Delta's top sustained winds strengthened to 110km/h on Sunday, up from 64km/h a day earlier, forecasters said. It would become a hurricane if those winds reach 119km/h but the forecasters said it would weaken by Monday as it moved over colder water and as winds in the upper atmosphere sheared off the top of the cyclone.

Delta, like its predecessors, Alpha, Beta and Gamma, was named from the Greek alphabet because the official list of 2005 storm names had been exhausted.

Of 25 named storms, 13 became hurricanes with sustained winds of at least 119km/h. The previous record set in 1933 was 21 named storms.

In October, Hurricane Wilma briefly became the strongest hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic, reaching Category 5 status on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity before slamming into the Mexican resort region around Cancun as a Category 4.

Hurricane Katrina inundated New Orleans at the end of August and killed more than 1200 people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Damage estimates topped US$30 billion (NZ$43.12 billion), making it the costliest natural disaster in US history.

Hurricane Stan, which did not reach Category 5 strength, killed up to 2000 people in Central America after its torrential rains triggered mudslides and flash floods.

- REUTERS