MIAMI, Oct 18: Tropical Storm Wilma, the 21st named storm of the Atlantic season, became a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale on Tuesday and was expected to develop into a ‘major’ storm, weather officials said.

At 1500 GMT, Wilma’s winds accelerated to 120kms per hour, making it the 12th hurricane of the season.

“Wilma is forecast to become a major hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean Sea,” the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said in a statement.

“And as it progresses, high pressure over the Gulf of Mexico is expected to weaken, ... allowing Wilma to move through the northwestern Caribbean and enter the southeastern Gulf of Mexico in about three days.”

The centre of the storm was located 320kms south-southeast of Grand Cayman island.

The storm had been creeping northwestward at 11kms an hour and was expected to continue moving in that direction for the next 24 hours, the hurricane center said.

“Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 15 miles (30 kilometres) from the center,... and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 120 miles (195kms),” it added.

Wilma, matching a record set during the 1933 Atlantic hurricane season, in which there were also 21 storms, gathered force in the Caribbean on Monday, threatening storm-battered Central America and pushing oil prices up sharply.

The storm threatened Honduras, where authorities issued a red alert and prepared for evacuations.

Authorities in neighbouring Nicaragua and El Salvador also kept a close eye on the storm’s course, while the storm dumped rain on Cuba, which evacuated more than 5,000 people from flood-prone areas. A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch also remained in effect for the Cayman Islands.—AFP