[UPDATED] Met Office: Hurricane may form north of Trinidad and Tobago by weekend

The Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service has said an active low-pressure area near the central Tropical Atlantic, east of the southern Windwards, has formed into Tropical Storm Lee.

The system is forecast to become a major hurricane by the weekend.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Met Office said the US National Hurricane Center upgraded the system to tropical depression status at 11 am on Tuesday and to tropical storm status at 5 pm.

The storm's centre is near 13.2N 41.8W or about 2115 Km east of the Lesser Antlles.

Lee is moving west-north-west near 26 kilometres per hour and this motion is expected to continue over the next few days. On this track it is not expected to directly impact TT.

There are currently no alerts, watches or warnings in effect for TT.

The Met Office said the centre of the system is initially projected to track northwestward and veer north of the Eastern Caribbean islands later this week, but could affect the Leewards.

The Meteorological Service said it continues to monitor this area of low pressure and will issue an update at 8.30 am on Wednesday or earlier, as significant development progresses.