Forecasters: Tropical Storm Matthew bears watching

Tropical Storm Matthew was born Wednesday morning and was hovering around the Lesser Antilles Islands gaining strength by early evening.

According to the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, people across the eastern United States and particularly around the Gulf of Mexico should be paying close attention.

“Right now, it’s got 60-mile per hour winds and is on a westward track at about 20 miles per hour,” said NWS lead forecaster Don Harrigan. “That track is going to continue for several days before it takes a turn to the north and northwest.”

Harrigan said while it is difficult to compare storms in their infant stages, Matthew so far has looked “more organized” than Hermine did as a tropical storm.

“I would say about this one, where Hermine intensified toward the end of its life, this one looks like it will progressively strengthen from now until it gets wherever it’s going,” Harrigan said.

Weather Underground’s Dr. Jeff Masters reported Wednesday morning that Matthew “was developing a well-defined surface circulation, and had an increasing amount of thunderstorm activity that was growing more organized.”

"The models are quite bullish on this storm being a hurricane when it makes its landfall early next week in the islands," Masters wrote in his daily blog, "and residents of Jamaica, Haiti, and eastern Cuba should anticipate the possibility of a hurricane affecting them early next week."