Tropical Storm Ida Strengthening Over Yucatan, Expected To Become Hurricane Again: Could Threaten U.S. On Wednesday

November 7, 2009 8:00 p.m. EST

Miami, FL (AHN) - Tropical Storm Ida picked up strength and speed Saturday, it could become a hurricane again late Saturday and the Mexican government has a hurricane watch in effect for the Yucatan Peninsula.

Ida could threaten the United States along the Gulf of Mexico coastline on Wednesday.

Tropical Storm Ida had near hurricane force winds of 70 miles per hour, U.S. National Hurricane Center forecasters in Miami, FL said in the agency's 7 p. m. advisory on Saturday.

At 7 p.m., Ida was moving north-northwest at 10 mph and was located about 180 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico and about 165 miles south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba, hurricane center forecasters said.

Ida is expected to move through the Yucatan Channel on Sunday and into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Sunday night.

A hurricane watch is in effect for the Yucatan Peninsula from Tulum to Cabo Catoche. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Cuban province of Pinar Del Rio, however, hurricane force winds could spread across western Cuba on Sunday and a hurricane warning might become necessary tonight, forecasters said.

Ida had been a hurricane before it made landfall in Nicaragua on Thursday, but it had downgraded to a tropical depression with winds of only 30 mph as it passed over Nicaragua and Honduras, before picking up strength again over the Yucatan Peninsula. However, Ida dumped a lot of rain in Nicaragua and flooding left at least 13,000 people homeless.

Ida is still a rainmaker with accumulations of 5 to 10 inches are possible across the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba.