Fred strengthened Wednesday to a major category three hurricane as it barreled over the eastern Atlantic but was in no danger of hitting land, US forecasters said.
Packing sustained winds approaching 120 miles per hour (193 kilometers per hour), the eye of Hurricane Fred was about 869 km (540 miles) west of the Cape Verde islands as of 1500 GMT Wednesday, satellite images showed.
"Fred becomes the second major hurricane of the year… no threat to land," read the latest update from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC), a US agency that monitors and predicts the behavior of storms.
"Some fluctuations in intensity are possible today but Fred is expected to weaken tomorrow," said a bulletin posted on the NHC website.
Hurricane Fred was churning northwest at around 13 miles per hour but was due to slow as it weakened on Thursday.
This year's Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1 and ends November 30, has seen a handful of tropical storms but just a single major one, Hurricane Bill, which grazed the US east coast and eastern Canada last month.
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