SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Tropical Storm Chris rapidly ran out of steam this morning as it pushed across the eastern Caribbean, prompting forecasters to say it was unlikely to become a hurricane.

At 8 a.m., Chris had top maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, just 1 mph above the minimum to be a named storm and down 20 mph from Wednesday night, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The center of the storm was about 285 miles east-southeast of Grand Turk Island.

The third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was moving west-northwest near 12 mph and was expected to move away from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands later today, forecasters said.

"It's pretty much a skeleton at this point," hurricane specialist Jamie Rhome said.