Invest 97L is expected to become the strongest Hurricane to make landfall in the US so far this season

Residents in the Florida Panhandle, Big Bend region and much of the central and eastern Gulf coast need to complete preparations for major hurricane impacts by Wednesday night before hazardous conditions arrive by Thursday.

A major hurricane is likely coming to the Gulf of Mexico.  Communities along the central and eastern Gulf coast only have a few days to prepare for the fast-brewing, quick-moving storm, which can potentially bring life-threatening storm surge, flooding rainfall, and destructive winds.

Showers and thunderstorms quickly gathered over the weekend in the western Caribbean and adjacent land areas in Central America. Localized flash flooding and mudslides will occur in areas surrounding the western Caribbean from Jamaica and Cuba to southeastern Mexico, Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua.

At this time, the storm's eye is most likely to track along the Gulf coast from the eastern tip of Louisiana to the central part of the Florida Peninsula.

The highest landfall probability at this time is somewhere along the coast of the Florida Panhandle late Thursday. A track into the Florida Peninsula could mean an earlier landfall Thursday.

However, people should not just focus on where the eye could make landfall.

Depending on the exact track of the system we could see our weather impacted here in the county and the area as we move toward the end of the week. Biggest impacts right now could be heavy rainfall and very windy conditions. 

Continue to follow Rowan County Weather for the latest updates.