NHC stops monitoring remnants of rainstorm Ana

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. National Hurricane Center stopped monitoring the remnants of Ana by midday Wednesday.

Earlier, the NHC and other forecasters gave Ana a small chance of regenerating into a tropical depression as it drifted into the eastern Gulf of Mexico over the next day or so.

Tropical Storm Ana - the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season - formed in the Atlantic Ocean on August 15 but weakened just one day later. Its remnants were raining on the Bahamas, Florida and the northwest Caribbean Sea early Wednesday.

Weather forecasters, however, continued to focus on Hurricane Bill - a powerful Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 135 miles per hour.

Bill should stay out of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico so energy traders have shown little interest in the storm.

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.

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

Bill was located about 1,080 miles south-southeast of Bermuda late Wednesday morning, according to the NHC. It was moving west-northwest near 18 mph on a path expected to take it between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast late in the week with possible landfall in the Canadian Maritimes early next week.

Although it was too soon to say, on its current track, the forecasters did not expect Bill to hit the United States but noted high winds and surf could cause some damage in Cape Cod in Massachusetts and the coast of Maine as the storm passes by over the weekend.

NHC website: www.nhc.noaa.gov/

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by John Picinich)