Tropical Storm Gabrielle remains on path to become hurricane by Sunday. See tracker.

Tropical Storm Gabrielle continues to strengthen as it moves across the Atlantic Ocean with forecasters expecting the storm to become a hurricane by Sunday.

The storm, given the name Gabrielle on Sept. 17, is moving northwestward at about 13 mph and is expected to have reached hurricane strength when it passes east of Bermuda beginning Sunday night, the National Hurricane Center said in an update at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 20.

Gabrielle was positioned Saturday about 615 miles southeast of Bermuda and 540 miles northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands, which includes Anguilla, Montserrat and Saint Martin, the NHC said. Currently, the storm is producing maximum sustained winds of 60 mph with higher gusts, but is expected gradually strengthen.

Bermuda is beginning to be hit by swells generated by Gabrielle and those are expected to build over the weekend and will likely result in life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, the hurricane center said.

Swells are expected to hit beaches along the Atlantic coast, from North Carolina and north as far as the coast of Atlantic Canada; the swells could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, beginning late this weekend into early next week, the NHC said.