Helene strengthened into a hurricane near southern Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, as it churned at the doorstep into the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center’s latest projected path for Helene keeps it far from the Texas Gulf Coast but shows the hurricane growing even stronger before making landfall in northern Florida late Thursday.

Helene has strengthened into a hurricane with forecasters warning that the storm would intensify as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico on a path to Florida