According to the 11 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, Elsa is packing 45 mph winds. Credit: Photo via NHC

Tropical Storm Elsa formed Thursday morning, and Tampa Bay is now within the cone of uncertainty.

According to the 11 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, Elsa is packing 45 mph winds, and is currently located roughly 680 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands moving west at 28 mph.

Forecasters expect the system to pass near the Windward Islands or the southern Leeward Islands on Friday, and move into the Caribbean Sea Friday night. 

It’s still too early to predict exactly how Elsa will impact Florida, but as of now the tropical storm is forecast to hit Southwest Florida late Monday or early Tuesday morning. 

Elsa is now the fifth named storm of the 2021 Hurricane Season. According to the NHC, Elsa’s early arrival is a new record, making it the earliest fifth named storm for the Atlantic basin. The previous record was held by Edouard on July 6, 2020.

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This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2021.

Colin Wolf has been working with weekly newspapers since 2007 and has been the Digital Editor for Creative Loafing Tampa since 2019. He is also the Director of Digital Content Strategy for CL's parent...