With a path that could bring it to Florida next week, the governor declared a state of emergency in the state.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the center of Tropical Storm Ian is about 230 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica and about 430 miles southeast of Grand Cayman. The winds are tropical storm-force.
The long-term path has shifted since Saturday morning, so the NHC projects landfall farther north along Florida's Gulf Coast.
"Ian is expected to remain a major Hurricane when it moves generally northward across the eastern Gulf of Mexico during the middle of next week, but uncertainty in the track forecast is higher than usual."
There is a risk of dangerous storm surge, Hurricane-force winds, and heavy rainfall along the west coast of Florida and the Florida Panhandle by the middle of next week, and residents in Florida should ensure they have their Hurricane plan in place, follow any advice.
Most of the state of Florida is within Tropical Storm Ian's "cone of uncertainty" now, although the NHC cautioned computer models continue to differ on where the storm goes in the Gulf of Mexico after leaving Cuba.
Ian will impact Florida next week.
NHC director Jamie Rhome told them not to get fixated on the little changes. If you are in or out of the cone, it can be as easy to move back and forth.
There is growing confidence that a potentially very impactful Hurricane will hit the western coast of the Florida peninsula. Rhome said that the forecasters are concerned about the storm surge.
He said that they needed you to be prepared and ready for the storm.
There is a chance of 2 to 4 inches of rain in the Florida Keys and South Florida on Monday, with some areas getting up to 6 inches on Tuesday.
It wasn't worth the risk of a launch attempt from Kennedy Space Center for the Artemis I mission to the moon on Tuesday, but NASA won't make a decision on that until Sunday. If the rocket stays at the launch pad, there is a chance of a launch on October 2.
The emergency declaration was made because the storm was expected to grow to a Category 3 Hurricane.
He said that the storm has the potential to strengthen into a major Hurricane and urged all Floridians to prepare. We are working with state and local governments to track the storm's impact.
The federal emergency declaration would free up funds for emergency protective measures for the entire state.
The latest cone of uncertainty still has the system approaching Florida late Tuesday, parked 100 miles to the west of Naples Wednesday morning, and making landfall Thursday morning as a Category 2 Hurricane with 120 mph winds and 130 mph gusts.
It is expected to gain hurricane strength as soon as Sunday night, according to forecasters.
There is a tropical storm watch in place for Little Cayman and the Cayman Islands.
As it headed towards Canada, HurricaneFiona became Post Tropical-CycloneFiona. It was located 80 miles northwest of Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph. At 8 mph, it was moving Northeast.
Tropical Storm Hermine continues to move off the coast of Africa while Tropical Storm Gaston is moving away from the Azores islands. The NHC is watching a disturbance hundreds of miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands.
After nearly two months of quiet, the tropics have started to produce storms in three weeks.
Despite not a single named storm forming in the month of August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration still predicted that the season would be above average with 14 to 21 named storms.
The season in 2020 had a record 30 named systems and the season in 2021 had 21 named systems. Fourteen named storms are called for an average year.
Nine named systems have been produced by Ian.
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