A strengthening Hurricane Dorian is churning over the warm, open waters of the Atlantic on Thursday as forecasts show the storm becoming more dangerous in its path to Florida’s east coast — a track that’s prompted President Trump to warn Dorian “will be BIG!”
The National Hurricane Center said, as of 11 a.m.EDT, that Dorian is a Category 1 storm with sustained winds near 85 mph and it is moving northwest at 13 mph. It was located about 220 miles north-northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, NHC said.
Forecasters believe the storm will strengthen into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane by Friday, staying well east of the southern and central Bahamas before making a turn toward Florida by Sunday afternoon.
At that time, the latest NHC forecast is for the storm to be a Category 4 storm as it approaches Florida.
“Hurricane Dorian looks like it will be hitting Florida late Sunday night,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “Be prepared and please follow State and Federal instructions, it will be a very big Hurricane, perhaps one of the biggest!”
Dorian is still “a long ways away” from eventually hitting the Florida coast, which gives residents across the area “plenty of time” to prepare, according to Fox News meteorologist Adam Klotz.
“No matter where this ultimately goes, it does look like it’s going to land along the Florida coast but it’s running over warm water and it’s going to continue to intensify,” Klotz said on “Fox & Friends.”