Forecasters say the fourth tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season has strengthened as it moves toward the Lesser Antilles. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Sunday that Tropical Storm Dorian could intensify to near hurricane strength over the eastern Caribbean Sea by Tuesday.

As of 8 p.m. EDT Sunday, Dorian’s center was located about 335 miles east-southeast of Barbados and was moving westward at 14 mph. Maximum sustained winds have remained near 50 mph since earlier Sunday. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center of the storm.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A tropical storm watch was issued for Grenada and its dependencies, as well as for Martinique.

NHC said Dorian is expected to produce 2 to 4 inches of rainfall across the Lesser Antilles — with isolated amounts as much as 6 inches.

Forecasters say Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Virgin Islands should monitor Dorian’s progress. They say the center of Dorian is expected to be near the Windward Islands late Monday or early Tuesday and move into the eastern Caribbean Sea on Tuesday.

The National Weather Service Tampa Bay tweeted it’s “too early to speculate” if Dorian will impact Florida.

Here’s the 5 pm forecast for Tropical Storm Dorian. The best action at this time is simply to monitor forecasts from your NWS/NHC over the coming days. It is still far too early to speculate on whether Dorian will ever impact Florida as many factors remain in question. #flwx pic.twitter.com/jAk9dH5wUD

— NWS Tampa Bay (@NWSTampaBay) 25 August 2019