Late Monday, Sandy became the eighteenth named storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. According to the National Hurricane Center, Sandy is expected to strengthen during the next 24 hours and become a hurricane on Wednesday— before reaching Jamaica. The official NHC forecast has tropical storm Sandy tracking to the north to north-northeast through to Friday. On this forecast track the center of Sandy will track over Jamaica late Wednesday, over eastern Cuba on Thursday, and over the eastern Bahamas on Thursday into Friday.