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System's Strength Escalated Quickly, Becoming Latest Tropical Storm

Gaston forecast track (11pm 08/22/2016)
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MIDWAY, Fla. (WTXL) -- Action in the tropics late Monday night introduced the hurricane season's seventh named storm, the latest in the general uptick during a historically busy time of the season.

Tropical Storm Gaston is still distant, in the eastern Atlantic, some 450 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands, or about 3,200 miles from the southern tip of Florida.

Gaston had highest winds of 40 mph and was moving west-northwest at 18 mph.

The forecast track keeps the storm over the Atlantic Ocean, through an environment that favors gradual intensification into a hurricane in the next couple of days.  The zone of possible movement keeps a healthy buffer between the storm and any major land mass through the five-day forecast period.