It is close to becoming a hurricane and may briefly do that before making landfall early Thursday. A Hurricane Watch is in effect for Eastern Nicaragua up to the border with its northern neighbor Honduras. The slow movement of the storm means a tremendous amount of rain with mudslides and flash flooding a likely result in these mountainous countries.

Where will Ida go?

Once it comes inland, it may be downgraded to a tropical depression for a few days and then it is expected to re-emerge in the Western Caribbean as a tropical storm again because the waters there are still warm enough to support it. After that, it will drift toward the Gulf of Mexico. Upper level winds will still likely steer this storm toward Texas and away from us by the middle of next week.

We're still not out of the woods from feeling a tropical impact later this weekend, however. A mass of clouds in the Bay of Campeche is still poised to drift northward by Sunday bringing elevated tides and squally rain from late Sunday into Monday.