First tropical storm likely in Atlantic: NHC

Raindrops are seen on a window pane near cranes at the downtown area of Miami June 13, 2007.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stormy weather is brewing in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

The second tropical depression of the season formed over the far eastern Atlantic Ocean early Tuesday, and will likely strengthen into the basin's first named storm over the next day or so, the Center forecast in a report.

Most weather models forecast the system would head west-northwest over the next five days toward the Bahamas, the U.S. East Coast and possibly the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

Energy traders, however, pointed out it was too soon to say where the system might make landfall, if at all.

The NHC said the center of the depression was about 350 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands, which are off the West Coast of Africa. The system was moving west over the open ocean at nearly 13 miles per hour with maximum sustained winds near 30 mph.

The NHC forecast the depression would strengthen into the first tropical storm of the Atlantic season with winds of 39 to 73 mph within 24 hours. If the system does reach such storm status, it would be named Ana.

After becoming a tropical storm, however, the NHC does not expect the system to strengthen into a hurricane over the next five days.

Last year at this time, there were already five named storms in the Atlantic basin.

Energy traders watch for storms that could enter the Gulf of Mexico and threaten U.S. oil and natural gas platforms and refineries along the coast.

Commodities traders likewise watch storms that could hit agriculture crops such as citrus and cotton in Florida and other states along the coast to Texas.

Separately, the NHC was also watching two tropical waves - one over the Windward Islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea and one over the Atlantic Ocean about 550 miles east of the Lesser Antilles - but gave both a small chance - less than 30 percent - of developing into a tropical storm over the next 48 hours.

Tropical Depression One formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Carolinas in late May and petered out hundreds of miles north off the New England coast.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)