Tropical storm warning for parts of Florida, Cuba and Bahamas

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Tropical storm warnings were issued early Friday for much of the Florida peninsula, Cuba and the Bahamas as a system that battered Mexico moves through the Gulf of Mexico, bringing threats of heavy rain and wind for the weekend.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm once known as Agatha in the Pacific Ocean will be known as Alex in the Atlantic Ocean basin.

An advisory posted early Friday noted that data from a hurricane hunter aircraft indicate the system's maximum sustained winds had increased overnight and it was expected to develop “a well-defined centre and become a tropical storm” as it approaches Florida, the hurricane centre said.

A system becomes a tropical storm when winds reach 39 miles per hour.

At 5 a.m., the system was located about 420 miles southwest of Fort Myers and was moving northeast at six miles per hour.

Some strengthening is possible as the system approaches Florida on Friday afternoon and evening, the advisory said.

The warning affects both Florida's Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast, from just below Tampa Bay and Daytona Beach to the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas.

Parts of Cuba, including the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, La Habana, and Mayabeque, and the northwestern Bahamas are also under a warning with tropical-storm-force conditions expected within 36 hours.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially began Tuesday.

This is an unusually early start to the storm season but not unprecedented for Florida.

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