Tropical Storm Ernesto heads into the Caribbean

By Rob Morris on August 3, 2012

Ernesto, the year’s fifth-named tropical storm, was heading into the Caribbean Friday but was struggling to maintain its intensity.

The National Hurricane Center said a number of factors were impeding the tropical storm’s intensification, but conditions are forecast to change in the next few days.

Top sustained winds were 45 mph. A gust of 63 mph was recorded on the island of St. Lucia as the center passed by, the hurricane center said.

Models vary in their forecasts, but the NHC says the storm could become a hurricane by Monday as it moves south of Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the hurricane center is keeping an eye on some stormy weather off the coast of Florida. It had a 10 percent chance of becoming a tropical system within the next two days.

A third system has a better chance of developing in the eastern Atlantic but probably not in the next couple of days, the hurricane center said.