First Hurricane of Season

M I A M I, Aug. 5 -- The first named tropical storm of the 2000hurricane season intensified to hurricane strength today but wasnot expected to threaten land anytime soon, forecasters said.

The storm, centered about 515 miles west of the Cape VerdeIslands, had top sustained winds of 75 mph, passing the 74 mphthreshold to become Hurricane Alberto, said Miles Lawrence, ahurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“It’s no threat to land for several days,” Lawrence said. “At some point it might be, but not any time soon.”

Alberto was located about 3,315 miles southeast of Florida withhurricane force winds extending 25 miles from its center.

Forecasters said it was still too early to predict if Albertomight ever threaten the United States or the Caribbean.

“It’s just one of many (storm) systems of a similar kind thatcome across the Atlantic, and whether or not they actually make itall the way across and threaten land, we’ll just have to wait andsee,” Lawrence said.