LEMON: Jacqui, I got so excited to see you, because I hadn't seen you since last weekend. And I went right to you and you weren't ready yet.</s>JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm always ready.</s>LEMON: Maybe we weren't ready yet.</s>JERAS: I'm so glad you were excited.</s>LEMON: Listen, Jacqui, I just looked at the computer and the weather team has sent out an update on Ida. Can you tell us about that?</s>JERAS: Absolutely. Ida has been strengthening quite a bit. It is a tropical storm, but nearly a hurricane. Maximum winds up to 70 miles an hour. You can see it is there into the western Caribbean. And we are expecting it to possibly become a hurricane in the next 12 hours. Now, where is this thing going and what kind. Impact can we expect for the U.S. mainland? Here's what we're predicting. The best estimate is that it will be moving through the Yucatan channel. And we could see it stay pretty strong into the central gulf. The water temperatures in the northern gulf are cooler and we have a lot of factors coming together. Basically, it is a complicated situation and it may or may not make U.S. landfall on Tuesday or Wednesday. The bottom line is be prepared for it. Expect a lot of flooding and also some very strong winds coming into play late Tuesday into Wednesday. We'll keep you posted, Don.</s>LEMON: All right, Jacqui. Thank you very much. I want to get you live to the House floor again where we are awaiting a vote on the health care bill.
Tropical Storm Ida Expected to Turn into Hurricane