An area of thunderstorms in the Caribbean is expected to develop into Hurricane Helene and rapidly intensify over the exceptionally warm Gulf of Mexico before slamming into the United States’ Gulf Coast later this week,

Most forecast models suggest a hurricane landfall on Thursday, and experts say the storm could be at least a Category 3.

A weather system south of the Cayman Islands is likely to become a tropical storm and strengthen quickly into hurricane as it moves north towards the U.S.