BREAKING NEWS: The National Hurricane Center (NHC)

has begun posting advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine,

which will likely become Tropical Storm Helene later today or tonight.

Big Picture: Tropical Storm Helene will likely form in the NW

Caribbean later today or tonight,

then strengthen to a hurricane as it approaches an area from the

Florida Panhandle through West Central Florida on Thursday.

Helene could intensify to a category 2 or 3

hurricane that will likely produce a large wind field,

and inflict wind, storm surge and rainfall impacts to a broad area of

Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

In Detail:

1. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts

an area of disorganized thunderstorms

to become better organized and form a center of circulation in the

NW Caribbean Sea later today or tonight.

The storm would likely be named

Helene, and is forecast to track through the Yucatan Channel,

then become a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.