Miami.- "There's been a notable change overnight to the forecast of Dorian after Tuesday," the National Hurricane Center said on Twitter Saturday morning, stressing that this shift does not rule out the possibility of the storm making landfall on the Florida coast.

Dorian became a potentially devastating Category 4 storm Friday evening as it continued to churn in the Atlantic Ocean on its course to the southeastern United States early next week.

"It's important to stress that this doesn't paint Florida as out of the woods yet," said Kathryn Prociv, a meteorologist for NBC News. "Florida is still very much in the red zone," she added.

Dorian will continue westward through the weekend but is then forecast to turn northward as it approaches the east coast of Florida early next week, the center said. It will bring "risks of life-threatening storm surge, devastating hurricane-force winds, heavy rainfall and flooding along its path."

As of the NHC's 11 a.m. ET advisory Saturday, the storm was located 260 miles east of the northwestern Bahamas and 415 miles east of West Palm Beach.

Dorian is moving toward the west near 8 mph (13 km/h) and a slower westward motion should continue into early next week. The maximum sustained winds have increased to near 150 mph (240 km/h) with higher gusts. The minimum central pressure reported was 945 mb. (RHC / 26Digital)

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