ORLANDO, Fla. – We continue to pinpoint the very latest on Ian.
As of 8 a.m. Sunday, Ian is currently a tropical storm with winds at 50 mph.
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Tropical storm and hurricane watches are in effect currently for western Cuba. The Grand Cayman islands are under hurricane warnings.
This could happen sometime late Thursday into early Friday. The models and the cone will change. Stay tuned. It does not have to deal with much of that wind shear or those upper level winds.
It is also moving into an area with even warmer water temperatures. The water temperatures are in the upper 80s.
This is the fuel to strengthen the storm rapidly.
Ian will become a hurricane later Sunday. By Tuesday and Wednesday, it will likely become a major Category 3 hurricane and eventually push away from Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico.
A dip in the jetstream or the upper level wind flow will help to pull Ian to the north, and to the east or west.
There’s still a lot of questions about that upper-level wind flow and its steering mechanism on Ian.
Will Ian be pulled farther to the west, and will it happen faster or slower than previously predicted?
The models continue to shift to the west. That is why the cone has shifted to the west, as well. This trend could continue all depending on the timing of that dip in the jetstream.
As of now, most all of Central Florida except for far southern Brevard county is included in the cone.
There’s a possibility of some impacts including tropical-storm-force winds and a few rain bands as early as Wednesday.
There are still a lot of questions as to the timing of the landfall and where.
Currently the models and the track want to bring a possible major hurricane anywhere from the Big Bend of Florida to the western Panhandle.
This could happen sometime late Thursday into early Friday. The models and the cone will change. Stay tuned.
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