NU Online News Service, June 21, 12:30 p.m. EDT

The National Hurricane Center reported the first hurricane of the 2010 season over the weekend, making it the third named storm so far of the season.

The weather service first spotted Hurricane Celia as a tropical depression on Saturday and upgraded it to a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday afternoon with sustained winds of 75 mph.

By early Monday morning, Celia, located 330 miles off the coast of Acapulco, Mexico, was reported to have sustained winds of 80 mph. The weather service said the storm posed no threat to land as it headed west.

Some strengthening is expected over the next 48 hours.

In the Atlantic, where officials are casting a wary eye to weather conditions as they continue to fight the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, some tropical storms have cropped up, but nothing significant has formed to date.

Weather forecasters have predicted a very busy hurricane season, which began June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.

The team of hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University, led by William Gray, increased its early season Atlantic basin forecast, saying there is more than 70 percent chance of a hurricane making landfall in the United States.

Joe Bastardi, AccuWeather.com's chief meteorologist and hurricane forecaster, said this year could be a top 10 hurricane year.

The National Weather Service predicted an above average hurricane season, saying there is 70 percent probability that there could be 8-to-14 hurricanes in the Atlantic basin with sustained winds of 74 mph or higher.

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