ORLANDO, Fla. – Tropical Storm Ernesto slowed down further as it continued to move west late Sunday, said the National Hurricane Center.
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In the NHC's 11 p.m. advisory Sunday, Ernesto was about 235 miles east of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-Honduras border, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph with higher gusts. It was moving west at 15 mph.
The tropical storm is expected to make a gradual turn toward the west-northwest with a further decrease in forward speed during the next 48 hours. The center of Ernesto is expected to pass to the south of the Cayman Islands early Monday and move north of the northeastern coast of Honduras late Monday.
Some strengthening is forecast as Ernesto moves above the northwestern Caribbean Sea on Monday and Tuesday.
The following warnings and watches are in effect:
- A tropical storm warning is in effect for Jamaica.
- A tropical storm watch is in effect for Grand Cayman, the coast of Honduras from the Honduras-Nicaragua border westward to Punta Castilla.
Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Florence, which formed recently far out in the Atlantic, had stopped strengthening early Sunday, forecasters said.
Florence had top sustained winds of 60 mph and is 680 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. But the forecasters said the storm was expected to begin strengthening anew in the next day or so, but might lose tropical characteristics before coming within 1,000 miles of the United States.