MIAMI - Felix strengthened into a full-fledged hurricane Saturday as it churned toward the Caribbean island of Aruba, the US National Weather Service said.
At midnight GMT, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles an hour) and its center was 435 kilometers (270 miles) east of Aruba -- a popular tourist destination, the service's National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.
The hurricane, north of Carupano, Venezuela, was expected to pass near or to the north of the Netherlands Antilles islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao late Saturday or early Sunday, it said.
Tropical storm warnings remained in effect for those islands.
A tropical storm watch was also issued Saturday evening for Jamaica, signaling that tropical storm conditions were possible within about 36 hours, the center said.
The hurricane was classified as a category one on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the weakest out of a scale of five, but was expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours.
The storm could dump two to four inches (five to 10 centimeters) of rain over islands off the Venezuela coast and the Netherlands Antilles, forecasters said.
After Aruba, the hurricane was expected to blow toward Nicaragua's and Honduras' eastern coastlines and Belize, where it could make landfall Wednesday unless the course changes.
Felix is the second hurricane of the three-month-old Atlantic season.
Last week Hurricane Dean swept through the southern Caribbean with severe winds and rains, leaving a wide swathe of damage and a death toll of 30 from Martinique to Mexico.
09/02/2007 00:57 GMT