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The storm loitered for two days in the Yucatan Channel, the strait connecting the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, giving the storm time to “get its act together and build the right internal structure,” DesRosiers said.

That loitering in the Yucatan Channel helped Idalia gain the right posture.

Idalia first formed as a tropical depression near the �۳ܳ�����á�� Channel between Mexico and Cuba on Saturday, after which it strengthened into a tropical storm on Sunday morning and became a hurricane early on Tuesday.

It curls up through the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, into the Gulf of Mexico, and then swings back out through the Florida Strait south of Florida as the Florida Current, where it becomes the main contributor to the Gulf Stream.

The center said the storm is expected to remain south of Cuba on Sunday and approach Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula - or the Yucatan Channel - late Monday before entering the southern Gulf.