GAINESVILLE – Tropical Depression 13 has strengthened to Tropical Storm Laura around 9am Friday, about 230 miles ESE of the northern Leeward Islands. Its wind speeds are 45 mph.
The system will make its way near or north of the Lesser and Greater Antilles in the Caribbean through this weekend. This storm is forecast to be near south Florida by Monday. The current forecast has a hurricane approaching south Florida / The Florida Keys Monday morning before emerging in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Impacts to North Central Florida will be minimal, if at all, with the current forecast.
Forecasters remain somewhat uncertainty over Laura's track and intensity because it could interact with mountains in the Greater Antilles. However, the storm could remain over open water and continue to develop as it passes north of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba toward Florida.
Tropical Depression 14 is currently in the Western Caribbean. It could become a tropical storm Marco Friday. National Hurricane Center forecasters predict the storm strengthening to a hurricane before landfall in Texas on Wednesday.
A rare weather phenomenon would occur if both Marco and Laura strike the United States as hurricanes. The last time two hurricanes hit near the same time was 1933, and at no time have two hurricanes struck the Gulf of Mexico coast.