Tropical Storm Idalia strengthens as it threatens to strike Florida

Residents along Gulf coast warned of increasingly dangerous situation' as storm expected to hit as major hurricane

Residents along Florida's Gulf coast were warned of an increasingly dangerous situation" on Monday as Tropical Storm Idalia continued to bulk up off the coast of Cuba and threatened to strike the state later in the week as a major hurricane.

With the storm moving north on a path almost parallel to Florida's west coast, the location of its landfall, expected early Wednesday, was difficult to predict, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said in a late-morning briefing.