After causing significant impacts in Cuba, Rafael is inching its way through the Gulf of Mexico before it's expected to turn south toward Mexico and lose its status as a named storm.
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00:00So here's the latest set up on that the latest position here. So we still have Hurricane Raphael
00:04overall moving a little bit to the west, moving relatively slow, but still maintaining
00:09as that Category 2 hurricane. However, as we look forward, this is going to be a very
00:14slow moving storm over the weekend. It will maintain as a Category 2 storm,
00:19but then the wind intensity will come down as we head throughout the weekend.
00:22And every single one of these icons you see right there, these are all spaced by 24 hours.
00:28So you can see between Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, not a whole lot of ground is going
00:33to be covered here by Raphael. However, after that, starting on Tuesday, it is going to
00:38accelerate to the south. And as it accelerates to the south, it will lose some wind intensity.
00:43So by the time it makes landfall there in Mexico, it will be a tropical rainstorm here. But overall,
00:49we're still going to see some strong winds, some elevated surf, some rip current conditions.
00:54And yes, even some flooding rainfall there as it makes its way towards parts of the Yucatan
00:58down and towards other parts of Mexico. So we will be watching this very carefully.
01:03As far as the overall impacts here as we head throughout now and next Thursday,
01:07this is going to be a very long impending storm. We will see rough surf and rip currents possible.
01:12And we're also going to see some heavy downpours of rain. But most of the impacts will be
01:16over water. They'll be offshore, which is great. But by the time it makes its way onshore,
01:21makes landfall next Thursday, the intensity will come down. But we could still see some
01:27brief heavy downpours of rain and possibly some coastal flooding for some areas. But overall,
01:32most of the impacts have already been felt here, especially across western parts of Cuba,
01:36where some areas have seen over a foot of total rainfall from Raphael. But as it continues this
01:41westerly track and then takes that hard left turn to the south, we could still see some one to two,
01:46three to four inch rainfall totals there on parts of Mexico as it makes its way
01:51onshore. So we will be watching this very carefully here as we head throughout this weekend
01:55and as we head into early parts of next week. For expert insights and superior accuracy,
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