Felicia, still far from Hawaii, expected to become major hurricane tonight

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Hurricane Felicia is rapidly intensifying and is expected to become a major hurricane overnight.

At 5 p.m. today, the category-2 storm was located at about 855 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Maximum sustained winds were at 110 miles an hour and moving to the west at 9 mph.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles from the center.

Felicia is expected to take a gradual turn to the west-southwest by Friday and forecast to move west this weekend.

Although long-term forecasts of hurricanes are subject to change, Felicia is forecast to weaken to tropical storm status sometime Tuesday, before crossing over the 140-degree longitude line into the Central Pacific.