A hurricane warning has been issued for the Cayman Islands and several Cuban provinces.
Tropical Storm Rafael intensified into a Category 1 hurricane as it moved through the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean on Tuesday, heading toward Cuba, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Rafael reached maximum sustained winds of 75 mph at 7:20 p.m. ET on Nov. 5, moving northwest, with its center located 20 miles southeast of Little Cayman in the Caribbean Sea, the NHC said on X.
The center said the storm could “rapidly intensify” into a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall in Cuba, and then moving toward the Gulf of Mexico.
“Rafael could briefly weaken over Cuba but is then expected to emerge into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico as a hurricane,” the NHC stated in its advisory.
A hurricane warning has been issued for the Cayman Islands and the Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, La Habana, Mayabeque, Matanzas, and the Isle of Youth, according to the advisory.
The Cayman Islands government issued a shelter-in-place advisory for Sister Islands and Grand Cayman on Nov. 5, urging the public to stay away from the coastlines until an official all-clear is issued. An…
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