Hurricane Rafael is currently a Category 2 storm moving westward with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph.
Rafael intensified into a major hurricane before making landfall in Cuba on Wednesday at 4:15 p.m. as a Category 3. The storm continues to bring flash flooding and mudslides to Cuba's mountainous regions.
There are still uncertainties regarding Rafael's exact track and intensity as it meanders through the Gulf this weekend. Current forecasts indicate that the storm is likely to weaken further into a tropical storm as it approaches the southern Gulf Coast.
The storm's path is gradually shifting southward, but it is expected to remain slow-moving. Rafael may either move closer to eastern Mexico or potentially stall, posing little to no threat to land. Notably, no named storm has made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast since the 1850s.
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Continue to monitor this article for updates as the weekend approaches.
