MIAMI (Reuters) - A tropical depression that could become the seventh named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season headed toward Bermuda on Sunday, prompting a tropical storm watch on the British overseas territory.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tropical Depression Seven would approach Bermuda later on Sunday or early on Monday. "The depression could become a tropical storm later today or tonight," the Miami-based center said.
If it formed it would be called Gert and would be the seventh named storm of what is forecast to be an active 2011 Atlantic season.
At 8 a.m. EDT it was packing winds of 35 miles per hour and was located 300 miles south southeast of Bermuda, moving northwestwards.
It posed no threat to the U.S. coast.
Late on Saturday, Tropical Storm Franklin, which formed briefly earlier in the weekend as the sixth named storm of the 2011 Atlantic season, lost its tropical cyclone characteristics over the North Atlantic.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, forecasters were watching a low pressure trough located 500 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands. The NHC gave it a 30 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours.
(Editing by Jackie Frank)