Category 5 Hurricane Irma has become one of the strongest storms recorded in the Atlantic, and is threatening to slam into Caribbean islands including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with "potentially catastrophic" force.
It's too early to tell whether the storm will affect the US mainland, but current forecast tracks show it could turn toward Florida over the weekend.
Irma was churning west last night in the Atlantic with maximum sustained winds of 300km per hour well above the 252 km per hour threshold for a Category 5 ‑‑ about 130 miles east of Antigua and Barbuda.
The last storm with sustained winds that strong in the Atlantic was 2005's Hurricane Wilma, which weakened before it brushed Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and crossed Florida.
Computer models show the system possibly near the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Turks and Caicos Islands on Thursday and Friday, and Cuba on Friday and Saturday ‑‑ and potentially turning north toward Florida by the weekend.
Source: CNN
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