According to the National Hurricane Center’s 7 pm Tuesday advisory, the tropical storm Rafael had upgraded to a hurricane with winds of 75 mph. Hurricane Rafael is 25 miles southeast of Little Cayman and 305 miles south-southeast of Havana Cuba, with maximum sustained wind of 75 mph. It’s moving at 15 mph to the northwest.

Rafael strengthened into a low-end hurricane Tuesday night as it approached the Cayman Islands in the central Caribbean Sea, the National Hurricane Center said. The rare November hurricane was expected to continue churning northwest toward western Cuba and enter the Gulf of Mexico this week,

Rafael is the 17th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. An average year sees 14 storms. Eight named storms have developed in November since 2013.