Tropical Storm Gaston could be on a path to becoming the nation's third hurricane of the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season. As of late Wednesday morning, the still tropical storm hovered over a stretch of over 1,000 miles west of Cabo Verde Islands off the coast of Africa and was moving northwest at a maximum sustained wind level of 70 mph with even higher gusts.

The threshold for a storm to officially be classified as a hurricane are winds of at least 74 mph.

Trajectory & Path Maps

Headed for the Atlantic

With that, authorities speculate that the storm could be drawn further northwest and into the Atlantic Ocean. It remains to be seen if the storm will veer closer to Bermuda before making an even sharper turn into the North Atlantic.

Beyond that, Gaston could become the subject of increasing west to southwesterly winds in the days to come, which could come to impact the overall intensity of the storm as the most active time of the Atlantic hurricane season approaches.

Warning Alert

The National Hurricane Center has already issued a bulletin about Gaston, the seventh named storm of the hurricane season.

Though the storm currently poses no threat to land, it could eventually grow into a Category 2 hurricane with peak winds of up to 105 mph.

More than 95 percent of all major hurricanes, or those with winds topping 111 mph, fall from mid-August through early-October, a time when tropical waters are warm and thus ripe to serve as fuel for storm like conditions.

Authorities speculate that its almost a given more storms will rage this season, but the hope is the U.S. will continue to benefit from the relative luck it's had in recent years when it comes to such scenarios.