<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">Tropical Storm Idalia formed Sunday in the Caribbean, buffeting southeastern Mexico with wind and rain, as forecasters predicted it will strengthen to a hurricane before reaching Florida later in the week.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The storm, which is not forecast to make landfall in Mexico, will travel across the Gulf of Mexico before reaching northwest Florida, the US National Hurricane Center said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Idalia will create "increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and hurricane-force winds along portions of the west coast of Florida and the Florida Panhandle beginning as early as Tuesday," the NHC warned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is considerable spread in the model intensity guidance, ranging from minimal to major hurricane status before landfall on the northeast Gulf coast," the NHC added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At 2100 GMT Sunday, Idalia was swirling in the Caribbean, headed northeast with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers (40 miles) per hour, the NHC said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun and other coastal tourist resorts, Idalia dumped rain and put a damper on one of the last weekends of summer vacation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Storm surge and hurricane watches have been issued for parts of Florida's coast and scattered flash flooding can be expected, the NHC said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Heavy rainfall is meanwhile expected across parts of the eastern Yucatan in Mexico and western Cuba.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last weekend, Hilary, which at one point rose to a Category 4 hurricane on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, hit the state of Baja California on Mexico's Pacific coast as a tropical storm, causing one death and damaging infrastructure.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hurricanes hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer with climate change. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>