MIAMI -- The latest projected path for a tropical depression north of Venezuela shows the storm moving south of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico early next week, according to Local 6 meteorologist Larry Mowry said.

"The models are not that much in agreement just yet," Mowry said. "Some of the models have it on the northerly track, some of them keep the storm farther south and a few of the models have it falling apart over Jamaica."

Tropical Depression Five could be come a hurricane by next week.

"It is forecast to become a Category 1 hurricane by the time we get into Tuesday or Wednesday," Mowry said. "As you can tell, we are out of the forecast cone. It looks like it will stay to the south but that track will likely change over the next few days."

At 11 a.m. EDT, the depression that formed Thursday had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph, below tropical storm strength of 39 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported. It could become Tropical Storm Ernesto later Friday.

"It's starting to have some of the signs of a tropical storm," said Eric Blake, hurricane specialist. "We have it passing pretty close to Jamaica in a couple of days and slowly intensifying. It could be a hurricane in the northwest Caribbean sea."

The depression was centered about 345 miles south of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Forecasters said it was moving west at about 20 mph.

Meanwhile, Debby is only a threat to ships crossing the Atlantic, forecasters said.

At 11 a.m., the storm was centered about 1,365 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde islands, which are about 350 miles off the African coast. It was moving toward the northwest near 17 mph, and was expected to continue on that path for the next day, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm had top sustained winds near 40 mph, down from 50 mph earlier in the day.

It is the fourth named storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season.

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