VENICE BEACH, Fla.—Tropical Storm Elsa strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday, hours before an expected landfall on Florida’s northern Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.
The center of Elsa was about 100 miles (165 km) south-southwest of Tampa, Florida, and was moving north at around 9 miles per hour (15 km per hour), with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), the NHC said in an 8 p.m. ET advisory.
