Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Katia, the second hurricane of the Atlantic season, may grow into a major storm this weekend north and east of Puerto Rico, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Katia, now about 1,000 miles (1,620 kilometers) east of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, has maximum winds near 75 miles per hour, the NHC said in an advisory at 5 a.m. New York time. The storm is moving west at 20 mph, the Miami-based center said.

“Strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours,” it said. “Katia could become a major hurricane by the weekend.” It’s now a Category 1 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. Major hurricanes, Category 3 on the scale, have winds greater than 110 mph.

Katia, the 11th named storm of this Atlantic hurricane season that runs from June through November, presents no threat to land anytime soon, the center said. The forecast path shows it well east of the Bahamas and south of Bermuda by Sept. 6.

A shift westward for Katia, forecast to turn north and out to sea eventually, could bring it to land in eastern Canada, the private forecaster AccuWeather said. Canada’s Atlantic region, a major gasoline supplier for the Northeast, exported 469,704 cubic meters (2.96 million barrels) of the fuel in May.

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Animation showing storm surge of incoming system north of Leeward Islands, Atlantic Ocean