Hurricane Bertha Strengthens Into Major Hurricane

The second named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season had become a Category 3 storm.

Hurricane Bertha strengthened into a "major" hurricane on Monday, with sustained winds of at least 115 miles per hour (185 km per hour) as it headed west-northwest across the open Atlantic hundreds of miles (kilometres) from the United States, U.S. forecasters said.

Strengthening far more swiftly and vigorously than had been predicted, the second named storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season had become a Category 3 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity by 5 p.m. (2100 GMT), the National Hurricane Center said.