Two tropical cyclones are continuing to move over open water in the Atlantic, but forecasters say neither poses a threat to land.

After three years of hurricanes barreling up the Gulf of Mexico, battered North Florida residents may feel they are living in a new Florida Hurricane Alley. But experts say there have not been any real changes in hurricane geographic patterns.

Forecasters say they expect Tropical Storm Helene in the Caribbean Sea to strengthen rapidly and become a hurricane as it moves north across the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday toward the U.S. The Nationa

Hurricane Helene is forecast to rapidly strengthen and could hit Florida on Thursday as a Category 4 storm, producing "catastrophic" winds of up to 156 miles per hour (251 km per hour), forecasters said.

Forecasters are warning that huge Hurricane Helene will intensify in the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall in Florida.

By Rich McKay and Brendan O'Brien (Reuters) -Powerful storm Helene officially became a hurricane on Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Center said, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 mph (130 kph) as it churned in the eastern Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.