Tropical Storm Idalia tracker: Follow the storm’s path as it heads toward Florida

Tropical Storm Idalia is forecast to become a major hurricane before it reaches Florida's Gulf Coast Wednesday, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

A vast swath of Florida's west coast is forecast to experience a significant storm surge of 4 to 11 feet, with the highest amounts possible near where Idalia makes landfall.

Idalia is expected to bring flash flooding to areas across the west coast of Florida, the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia Tuesday into Wednesday, the hurricane center said.

As of Monday afternoon, Idalia had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, according to the hurricane center. A tropical cyclone that has maximum sustained surface winds of 74 mph or greater is a hurricane.

A major hurricane is a Category 3, 4 or 5 storm or higher. A storm becomes a Category 3 hurricane when maximum wind speeds reach at least 111 mph.

Here's a live tracker of Idalia's expected path:

Contaminated gas: Florida Gulf Coast drivers warned of contaminated gas as Tropical Storm Idalia bears down

Tropical Storm Idalia tracker

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

Tropical Storm Idalia spaghetti models

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tropical Storm Idalia path: Follow the storm with live tracker