Rafael was moving west across the Gulf of Mexico Friday morning as the first major hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico in November for almost 40 years, bringing the threat of life-threatening conditions to the southern United States coastline.

Hurricane Rafael pulled away from Cuba Thursday morning after slamming into the island as a Category 3 hurricane and taking down its power grid. A significant shift in the storm’s forecast track means the threat to the US is dwindling,

The hurricane center cautioned there is "larger-than-normal uncertainty regarding Rafael's intensity later in the forecast period."