Tropical Storm Bonnie forms near the Bahamas [View All]

[Electric Monk]

Source: Reuters

MIAMI (Reuters) - A tropical storm formed near the Bahamas on Thursday on a track that could take it over BP's oil spill site in the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. National Hurricane Centre said Tropical Storm Bonnie, the second named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, was packing maximum sustained winds of 40 miles (65 kph) per hour.

Weather models project the storm will skirt south of Florida and swirl northwest across the oil-rich central Gulf of Mexico, near where BP is cleaning up its massive oil spill, before hitting the Louisiana or Texas coasts.

Forecasters say this year's hurricane season could be the worst since 2005, when Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma caused havoc in the Gulf Coast, damaging oil rigs and refineries and forcing sharp cuts in production.

Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE66L69M20100722