Hurricane Rafael, the storm that hit cuba this week with 115 mph winds and heavy rain, now It is not expected to make landfall in the US.but the storm will make its presence felt on U.S. beaches through Monday with strong surf and dangerous rip currents.

Rafael regained major hurricane status on Friday, reaching maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour, generating waves and high seas throughout the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said.

The hurricane will bring a high risk of life-threatening rip currents and high surf with large breaking waves along the Gulf Coast. Corpus Christi beaches south along the Florida peninsula over the Veterans Day weekend, National Weather Service offices warned Friday.

“Surges generated by Rafael are expected to spread across most of the Gulf of Mexico over the next few days. These surges are likely to cause life-threatening waves and tear apart current conditions,” the National Hurricane Center said. in a Friday forecast.

In Corpus Christi, wave heights were expected to grow as high as 8 feet on Friday and then rise as high as 10 feet over the weekend, the weather service said. Along the beaches in Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, Breakers up to seven feet high are expected.

in your last notice Early Friday morning, the hurricane center said Rafael, which was heading west at Category 3 strength, should begin to weaken and continue to decline, becoming a tropical storm on Saturday.

Rafael in Cuba

Rafael soaked western Cuba and cut off the electrical grid of the entire island when it hit the island nation as a Category 3 storm. The resulting blackout served to intensify a crisis that has left many residents without power. for more than two weeks in the midst of a series of failures in the electrical grid.

Tens of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of the storm’s arrival and some 10 million Cubans remained without power Thursday as authorities struggled to restore power. The country’s state media said they had restored power to some areas, but the capital, Havana, remained largely dark.

Additional rainfall of 2 to 4 inches is expected on Friday. according to the hurricane centerresulting in total storm accumulations of 12 inches in parts of western Cuba. This could cause flash flooding and landslides, especially on higher ground.

Hurricane Rafael: Storm heads to Gulf after hitting Cuba and collapsing power grid

Will Hurricane Rafael hit the United States?

USA, particularly floweryI should take a break because The latest forecast from AccuWeather. shows Raphael saving the central Gulf region.

Rafael’s further westward trajectory will take it further away from the United States, according to AccuWeather meteorologists. This would make Rafael the first hurricane to reach the Gulf of Mexico in 2024 that will not make landfall in the US.

“Rafael’s impacts on the U.S. will be indirect and primarily in the form of rough seas over the Gulf and strong surf along Gulf Coast beaches this weekend,” according to AccuWeather. “Depending on how wet the feature is when it’s over the southwest Gulf, there may also be some rain in South Texas next week.”

What is Rafael doing in the Gulf of Mexico?

As at least one model had predicted this week, the center’s current forecast calls for the hurricane to make a small loop in the Gulf as it moves through Monday.

At least a dozen storms since 1963 have caused loops of various sizes as they were pushed by larger weather systems. Rafael was being guided by a ridge stretching from the Atlantic to the Gulf and a trough over the continental United States, thwarting what had once been predicted to be a landfall on the northern Gulf Coast.

In 1985, Hurricane Elena moved across Cuba and then appeared to be heading toward Florida before steering currents pushed it into a short circuit and it ended up making landfall between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama.

Hurricane Rafael Track Tracker

This forecast track shows the most likely track of the storm’s center. It does not illustrate the full width of the storm or its impacts, and the center of the storm likely travels outside the cone up to 33% of the time.

Hurricane Rafael Spaghetti Models

The illustrations include a variety of forecasting tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses only the four or five highest-performing models to help make its forecasts.

(This story has been updated to add new information and a new video.)

Contributing: Christopher CannUSA TODAY

Eric Lagatta covers the latest news and trends for USA TODAY. Contact him at [email protected]

This article originally appeared in USA TODAY: Hurricane Rafael Tracker: View Projected Path, Spaghetti Models