MIAMI - Felix strengthened into a full-fledged hurricane Saturday as it churned toward the Caribbean island of Aruba, the US National Weather Service 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.
At 0300 GMT Sunday the storm's center was located about 340 kilometers (210 miles) east of Aruba, the service's National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.
Felix had maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles an hour), and was moving west at around 30 kilometers (18 miles) an hour.
The hurricane was expected to pass just north of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao early Sunday, the advisory said.
The islands are popular tourist destinations in the Netherlands Antilles. Local authorities issued a hurricane watch for the three islands.
A tropical storm watch was also issued for Jamaica, signaling that tropical storm conditions were possible within about 36 hours, the center said.
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 03:33 GMT