INSIDE: The Florida Keys sit in Tropical Storm Laura’s path.

Tropical Storm Laura formed Friday morning, and much of Florida remains out of its forecast track, according to the 8 p.m. Friday update from the National Hurricane Center.

A Hurricane Hunter aircraft investigated the system and found it had become better organized, but the hurricane center said it has low confidence in the storm’s track and intensity forecasts because of possible interactions with the islands in the Caribbean.

Tropical storm warnings were posted for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Haiti and several others in the eastern Caribbean.

Monroe County Mayor Heather Carruthers declared a state of emergency at noon Friday, ordering the mandatory evacuation of all live-aboard vessels, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, travel trailers, and campers.

General population shelters will be discussed Saturday morning to open on Sunday at 3 p.m. for those who live in vulnerable homes or aboard boats, she said.

The latest forecast shows the system in the Florida Straits between Cuba and the Keys as a tropical storm on Monday morning, then passing near Key West as a hurricane and into the Gulf of Mexico. The track has Laura making landfall somewhere between New Orleans and the Florida panhandle as a hurricane in the middle of next week.

South Florida may not get the full brunt of a tropical storm or hurricane but that doesn’t mean we won’t feel some of its effects, according to a National Weather Service briefing Friday.

“Tropical storm conditions remain possible across parts of southern Florida on Monday into Monday night,” the National Weather Service. “This threat has decreased with the past few advisories but fluctuations remain possible.”

In a letter, Gov. Ron DeSantis asked President Donald Trump to declare a pre-landfall emergency in 34 counties, including Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.

Tropical Storm Laura had sustained winds of 45 mph and was moving quickly at 17 mph toward the west, according to the hurricane center’s advisory at 8 p.m. Friday. The storm was moving across the northern Leeward Islands on Friday night.

The system — which is about 250 miles east-southeast of San Juan in Puerto Rico — could cause storm surge, rainfall and heavy wind in portions of Hispaniola,

Cuba, the Bahamas and far southern Florida this weekend.

South Florida residents should continue to monitor its progress. Whether or not the storm moves over the terrain of Greater Antilles this weekend will factor into its track and intensity. Storms generally lose intensity over land and may encounter storm-weakening wind shear.

Another depression in the western Caribbean is also expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Marco and move north into the Gulf of Mexico. It could also be a hurricane next week off the coast of Texas or Louisiana.

“These are right on schedule,” said Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the Miamibased National Hurricane Center. “This time of year, in August and into September, you get these tropical waves that roll off the coast of Africa on average about every three or four days.”

Tropical Storm Laura is the 12th storm of the year, matching the record for the most number of tropical storms before September. The only other time that happened was in 2005, the year of Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.

After Laura, the next named storms of 2020 are Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred.

In July, there were five tropical storms: Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna and Isaias.