come within a few hundred miles of the Island by the weekend. Hurricane Alberto, which was downgraded to a tropical storm yesterday morning, regained strength later in the day and was declared a category one hurricane last night. Alberto was located 856 miles to the east southeast of Bermuda last night and was considered a potential threat to the Island, the Bermuda Weather Service (BWS) reported. It was moving northwest at 19 knots and had maximum sustained winds of up to 85 knots which were expected to increase as the storm progressed across the Atlantic. The closest point of approach to the Island is predicted to be at 3 p.m. on Friday when the storm is expected to pass about 300 miles to the east of the Island. Declan O'Connell of BWS said: "The hurricane won't have much effect through Thursday and Friday but the seas will start to increase on Saturday. "Even at the moment the seas are rising but more so by the weekend -- they are up to six to eight feet outside the reef.

On Saturday and Sunday we will have winds of up to 15-25 knots on both days.

"That's just typical weather as the hurricane comes closer.'' Forecasters are also tracking a tropical depression which has cropped up off the coast of central Florida. Tropical Depression Four was located 758 miles to the west southwest of Bermuda last night and was packing winds of up to 40 knots. The tropical storm, which was moving to the west at four knots, was not considered a threat to Bermuda last night, BWS reported. Mr. O'Connell said: "We are not as interested in the tropical storm as we are in Alberto because it is quite small and is much further away at the moment. It shouldn't have any effect on our weather -- not in the near future anyway.''