Tropical Storm Fay emerges over Atlantic

? Forecasters on Friday evening upgraded the status of a strong tropical weather system presently over the Dominican Republic.

Tropical Storm Fay – the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season – was dumping rain and blowing 40 mph wind gusts as it swept across Hispaniola toward Haiti. The governments of the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba issued tropical storm warnings.

The system will likely affect Cuba sometime later today, and Florida could take a hit by early next week.

The latest forecast tracks – subject to wide margins of error – show Fay approaching the Florida Keys sometime Monday night and riding up to Florida’s West Coast by Tuesday morning.

Forecasters are watching to see how the system will react after moving over land.