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Ophelia gradually turning toward landfall

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Hurricanes
National Weather Service
Tropical Storm Ophelia

(CNN) -- Hurricane Ophelia swirled on a slow and uncertain path Saturday as forecasters warned could take it onto the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia or northern Florida by late Monday or early Tuesday.

Saturday's 2 p.m. EDT advisory from the National Hurricane Center said Ophelia's top winds were measured at 80 mph and it was centered 225 miles east-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina., and 255 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, little changed from the previous statement three hours earlier.

The storm's forward motion to the northeast was just 3 mph, in line with predictions that it would begin a sharp turn toward the U.S. coast over the weekend.

"Little motion is expected today with a gradual turn to the west-northwest on Sunday," the NHC advisory said. A hurricane watch was issued for entire coast of South Carolina northeastward to Cape Lookout, North Carolina.

A map of the storm's most likely path shows it making landfall near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, late Monday or early Tuesday, although a small portion of northern Florida, the Georgia coast, all of South Carolina and most of North Carolina are in the large circle designating Ophelia's potential path.

However, because of the erratic nature of hurricane movement, such projections often change, and residents from northern Florida to North Carolina were warned to keep an eye on the storm.

Ophelia was declared a hurricane for the third time by the NHC's 11 a.m. advisory Saturday. On Friday night, Ophelia's sustained winds were only 75 mph, making it barely strong enough to be called a hurricane, and it was heading northeast, parallel to the coast. It was downgraded to tropical storm status at 5 a.m. EDT Saturday as top winds dipped to 70 mph.

South Carolina emergency officials urged people in the Palmetto State to make sure their hurricane plans were up to date, gather supplies and prepare their homes for a possible strike.

In Florida, residents along the northeast coast were being advised to stay out of the ocean this weekend because of the danger of rip currents and high surf.

If Ophelia hits the United States at hurricane strength, it will be the third hurricane to strike U.S. soil this year, with three months yet to go in the busy 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.

Dennis landed near the Florida-Alabama border in early July; Katrina -- which made two landfalls in August -- brought devastation and misery to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

Two tropical storms -- Arlene and Cindy -- have also made landfall in the United States this year, both along same stretch of the northern Gulf Coast menaced by Dennis and Katrina.

As Ophelia looms off the U.S. coast, two other tropical storms are also churning in the Atlantic -- Maria and Nate -- though both are far out to sea and pose no threat to land.

A little more than a week into September -- usually the most active month for tropical activity -- the 2005 hurricane season has already seen 15 named storms, seven of which reached hurricane strength with winds of at least 74 mph. Four of those became major hurricanes, with sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the historical averages for a hurricane season are 10 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes. Those numbers have already been exceeded this season, which doesn't end until Nov. 30.

The largest number of named storms ever recorded was 21 in 1933, a record that will be broken if just seven more storms develop in the next 12 weeks. And if that happens, the hurricane center will run out of names for the first time since it adopted the system of assigning names to storms in 1953.

CNN Meteorologist Rob Marciano contributed to this report.

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