Tropical Storm Gonzalo has been upgraded to a hurricane — and could be heading towards Bermuda.

The system formed in the Caribbean and was on course to move out over open ocean after buffeting Antigua and nearby islands with heavy rain and wind.

Gonzalo passed near Antigua as a tropical storm, tearing roofs from people’s homes and knocking down trees, then gathered enough force near St Martin to be reclassified as a hurricane.

Earlier today, Rob Howlett, on-duty meteorologist at Bermuda Weather Service, told The Royal Gazette: “As of 6am this morning, it was about a thousand miles to our south-southeast.

“It’s moving westerly and it’s going to take more of a north-westerly track as it cycles Puerto Rico and that part of the island chain. As it works around high pressure to the east, it will recurve to the north-east by Thursday.

“Right now, we are just looking at 50 knots (58mph) as the sustained winds. It’s going to be increasing — as it cycles Puerto Rico, it will increase to a cat[egory] one and then cat[egory] two [storm] by early Thursday.”

Mr Howlett said his comments were based on the track forecast by the National Hurricane Center in the US and he stressed that it was difficult to know at this stage how Bermuda would be affected.

“Looking at the long-term forecast, it looks like this weekend we should see some effects,” he added. “It’s really hard to tell how close it will be at this point. We are probably going to feel the effects of this. We’ll just have to really keep up-to-date on how the track changes.

“This weekend is, generally speaking, when we’ll start to feel those effects — on Friday and over the weekend.”

A forecast issued at 6pm today by the Bermuda Weather Service put Gonzalo 870 nautical miles south of Bermuda.

The closest point of approach within 72 hours is predicted to be 378 nautical miles to the south-southwest at 6pm on Thursday.

Maximum winds are about 65 knots with gusts of 80 knots.

The National Hurricane Center reported at 11pm that the storm is travelling northwest at about 10 knots and this is expected to continue through early Wednesday. A turn towards the north-northwest is forecast by late Wednesday.

Gonzalo is being classed as a category one hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 knots.

Further strengthening is expected, the Center said, and Gonzalo could become a major hurricane by Wednesday.

Hurricane-force winds were extending outward from the centre by 35 kilometres, with tropical storm winds extending outwards by 165km.