Hurricane Igor Intensifies to a Category 4 Storm

Hurricane Igor quickly gained strength today as it moved toward the Caribbean, surging to a Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, and may add more power during the next two days.

The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 135 miles per hour, is moving west at 14 mph, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its advisory. The hurricane is about 1,120 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands, the center said. Hours earlier, at 11 a.m. New York time, the center said the hurricane’s maximum sustained winds were 105 mph.

Igor’s formation gave the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season its ninth named storm, as many as all of last year, based on data from the hurricane center. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, and an average year has 11 storms with winds of at least 39 mph.

By 8 a.m. New York time on Sept. 17, Igor is expected to be north of Puerto Rico and well to the east of the Bahamas, the center said.