Ian is rapidly intensifying, and its potential landfall has made a shift back to the east.
Tropical Storm Ian intensified Sunday evening and is quickly approaching hurricane strength as it nears Cuba, the Gulf of Mexico and ultimately Florida’s coast along the gulf. Tropical storm warnings have already been issued in the Florida Keys, and storm watches have already been issued in the state’s southwest coast.
The National Hurricane Center late Sunday stated that Ian had increased from 45 mph to 65 mph of sustained winds in just a three-hour window. The next update at 2 a.m. ET on Monday could bring an elevated status of Hurricane Ian as a category 1 storm as it continues moving across warm waters in the Caribbean Sea.
The latest cone path has the storm landing in Florida, just north of Tampa and St. Petersburg along the state’s west coast.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had placed 24 counties in a state of emergency, but that was extended to include the entire state.
Ian formed on Friday and was initially projected to hit Florida’s southwest coast of Fort Myers and Naples, but the storm kept jogging west in the Caribbean, and its predicted path moved all the way up to Florida’s Big Bend area, which is near Apalachicola, Port St.
