Hurricane Igor rapidly strengthened Sunday over the Atlantic Ocean into a category 4 storm, roaring westwards with sustained winds of 215 km/hr, dpa reported.
A category 4 storm is the second-highest rating on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.
Igor was forecast to intensify over the next 48 hours, according to the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida, but it remained far from land.
At 2:30 pm (1830 GMT), the storm was about 1,800 km east of the Caribbean's northern Leeward Islands and was moving west. Hurricane force winds extended up to 65 km from the eye of the storm.
Igor is the fourth hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, following Alex, Danielle and Earl.
Meanwhile, a tropical depression had formed off the southernmost Cape Verde Islands, and was likely to develop into Tropical Storm Julia later Sunday or Monday. It had sustained winds of 55 km/hr and was dumping rain over much of the islands.