Tropical Storm Idalia formed Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico on a potential track to come ashore as a hurricane in the southern U.S., the National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical Storm Idalia formed Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico on a potential track to come ashore as a hurricane in the southern U.S., the National Hurricane Center said.
At 5 p.m. Sunday, the storm was about 95 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, moving northeast at 3 mph with highest sustained winds of 40 mph, forecasters said. Hurricanes have winds of 74 mph and above.
Forecasters said they expected Idalia to become a hurricane on Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico and then curve northeast toward the west coast of Florida. Idalia could approach Florida with winds of up to 100 mph, according to the latest forecasts Sunday from the Hurricane Center. That would make it a Category 2 hurricane.
At a Sunday afternoon briefing, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that much uncertainty remains in the forecast.
“This thing hasn’t even gotten to Cuba yet, and the water in the Gulf is very, very warm and so that will provide some fuel for this thing to pick up some more speed,” DeSantis said.
Large parts of the western coast of Florida are at risk of seawater surging onto land and flooding communities when a tropical storm or hurricane approaches. That part of Florida is very vulnerable to storm surges, Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, said Sunday.
“So it will not take a strong system or a direct hit to produce significant storm surge,” he said.
