Hurricane Irma is closing in on the Caribbean. Here’s what you need to know

In the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana, forecasters are keeping a close eye on Hurricane Irma, a category 3 storm that’s in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, currently roughly 625 miles east of the Leeward Islands and heading west.

The storm is traveling about 14 miles per hour (22 kilometers per hour), and is expected to hit the West Indies Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Already, the Irma’s winds have reached 115 miles per hour (185 kilometers per hour), and are expected to grow stronger, to almost 140 miles per hour. Hurricane watches have been issued in Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, and forecasters expect them to be issued for the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico later today.

CNN’s meteorologist Brandon Miller said that Irma is a fairly typical example of a “Cape Verde storm,” which start brewing over the east coast of Africa in an area now known as Cabo Verde. Hurricanes start off as thunderstorms that result from low pressure air systems over warm waters. They gather wind strength as higher pressures quickly move in to fill in the low pressure areas. Cape Verde storms have their entire trip across the Atlantic to gain wind power, which makes them some of the strongest hurricanes. Other Cape Verde storms have included Hurricane Hugo, a devastating storm that took a similar path in 1989 and Hurricane Floyd, which hit the east coast of the US a decade later.

Official forecasts from the National Hurricane Center only go out every five days. These predictions show that Irma should be right above Puerto Rico and east of the Dominican Republic early Thursday morning.

Irma’s predicted path, as of 8 am ET Sept. 4. (National Hurricane Center/NOAA)

Some meteorologists expect that Irma will likely take a turn northward later by this coming weekend, however, possibly impacting the southeastern part of the US, including Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina on the Atlantic coast or Louisiana and Arkansas in the Gulf of Mexico.

These predictions are so far out, they’re likely to change as Irma soldiers on. Still, officials in Florida are already warning residents to prepare for a major storm.