Tropical Storm Lili Headed For Florida Keys

A tropical depression in the northwest Caribbean grew into Tropical Storm Lili today and forecasters warned it could reach waterlogged South Florida and the Keys before the weekend.

At 11 a.m., the storm was centered about 335 miles south-southwest of Havana, and its top sustained wind had increased to nearly 60 mph.

Lili had made an expected turn from a northwesterly to a northerly direction earlier today and was expected to keep that course through the day, growing in strength, before beginning a gradual turn toward the northeast, meteorologists said.

“The big questions are how soon this turn will occur, and how far to the right Lili might go during the next few days,” hurricane specialist Richard Pasch of the National Hurricane Center wrote in an advisory.

Lili might arrive as a hurricane.

“We don’t want people to drop their guards because it’s October,” said hurricane specialist Max Mayfield. “There have been plenty of hurricanes in October.”

Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

The Cuban government issued a hurricane watch Tuesday, and tropical storm warnings were posted for Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and for the Cayman islands.