The seventh major Atlantic storm of the season turned into a hurricane Thursday and remained an unpredictable threat to the United States as it battles with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
The US National Hurricane Center said Ophelia was just 110 kilometers (70 miles) from the Florida coast but was barely moving.
It said a "slow northeastward motion may occur" over the next 24 hours and warned that tropical storm conditions could hit Florida's Atlantic coast.
The storm currently has sustained winds of 120 kilometers (75 miles) an hour making Ophelia a category one storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale which goes up to five.
The US Gulf Coast was ravaged last week by Katrina, a category four storm when it hit land, which has left thousands feared dead and tens of billions of dollars of damage.
