Tropical Storm Ernesto expected to become hurricane soon while passing Puerto Rico

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- As Tropical Storm Ernesto headed toward the Virgin Islands late Tuesday, National Hurricane Center forecasters say they expect the storm to become a hurricane during the night while passing northeast of Puerto Rico.

At that time, the system will become the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

In its 5 p.m. update , the National Hurricane Center located Ernesto about 65 miles east-southeast of St. Thomas and 135 miles east-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

It had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and was traveling, as it had been earlier, west-northwest at 18 mph.

Forecasters say they still expect the storm to move over the western Atlantic later in the week and be near Bermuda by Friday.

Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft reported maximum sustained winds near 60 mph, with higher gusts.

Tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles, NHC officials say.

Meanwhile, the estimated minimum central pressure was reported at 1001 mb.

A hurricane watch was in effect for the U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, as well as Vieques and Culebra.

Tropical storm warnings are in effect for St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla; Guadeloupe, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, Sint Maarten British Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Vieques and Culebra.

The government of Antigua and Barbuda discontinued the tropical storm warning for Montserrat.

Earlier in the week, Puerto Rico began to prepare.

Hurricane Maria in 2018 caused an estimated $90 billion in damage in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, NHC said. Maria was the most destructive hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in modern times and the third costliest hurricane in U.S. history behind Katrina and Harvey.

Maria also knocked down 80% of Puerto Rico's utility poles and all transmission lines, resulting in loss of power to essentially all of the island's 3.4 million residents. Nearly all cellphone and municipal water supplies also were knocked out.

Earlier this week, Ernesto Morales, a National Weather Service meteorologist and warnings coordinator, told The San Juan Daily Star, the atmospheric system could cause rains, floods, landslides and dangerous maritime conditions.

Debby was a Category 1 storm that made landfall in the Florida Panhandle and then moved through the U.S. Atlantic Coast last week.

Beryl struck parts of the Caribbean, the Yucatán Peninsula and the Gulf Coast of the United States in late June and early July.

Two tropical storms were in the Gulf of Mexico in June: Cindy and Alberto .