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Tropical Depression Nine (known as #TD9) formed in the central Caribbean Friday morning, Sept. 23, and became Tropical Storm Ian on Friday night.
Ian, the ninth named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, is expected to strengthen to hurricane status and move north through Florida next week.
The projected path for Tropical Storm Ian through next Saturday, Oct. 1 is shown in the image above from AccuWeather.com.
The time frame for the arrival of tropical-storm-force winds from Ian is shown in the second image above from the National Hurricane Center.
It's located about 800 miles east-southeast of Cuba, as of early Saturday morning, Sept. 24, with maximum sustained winds of about 45 miles per hour.
On the forecast track, further westward movement is expected before it turns back west-northwest and then northwest over the weekend.
"Because of very warm waters and a forecast minimal amount of disruptive winds, there is the potential for the system to undergo rapid strengthening anytime from this weekend to midweek," said AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok.
Moving to early next week, Ian is expected to barrel up the southwest coast of Florida as a Category 2 hurricane with wind speeds of 110 mph on Wednesday, Sept. 28, and possibly strengthen to Category 3 status.
This continues to be a developing story. Check back to Daily Voice for updates.
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