While over western Cuba, the storm is likely to bring heavy rain, leading to flooding and possible mudslides. It will likely intensify while moving northward over the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and could become a major hurricane when it reaches the northeastern Gulf Coast of the US on Thursday.

The forecast refers to the potential for rapid intensification over the Gulf of Mexico, which is when a storm gains 35 mph or more in a 24-hour period.

An area of thunderstorms in the Caribbean is expected to develop into Hurricane Helene and rapidly intensify over the exceptionally warm Gulf of Mexico before slamming into the United States’ Gulf Coast later this week as a major hurricane.

Forecasters warned residents along Florida’s Gulf Coast of potential Hurricane Helene, which is expected to form in the next 48 hours and track toward an area somewhere between Tampa and Pensacola late in the week.

A tropical depression forming on Monday is expected to become a tropical storm and then Hurricane Helene as it moves north through the Gulf of Mexico, bringing potentially widespread and dangerous impacts to much of central and northern Florida.