The watch stretches from Florida City northward to St. Augustine, including Lake Okeechobee. There's a hurricane warning for the northwestern Bahamas, with a tropical storm warning for the central Bahamas.
Early Friday morning, Jeanne ws centered 340 miles east of Great Abaco Island. Movement was to the west at about eight miles an hour, with some increase in forward speed possible.
Top sustained winds were about 100 miles an hour, with some strengthening possible.
Forecasters still look for Jeanne to eventually turn more northwest, but the timing is the major question. The official forecast track brings the center of the system to the Florida coast Sunday night, close to the Fort Pierce area. The official track indicates movement would then be north, up Florida's Atlantic coast.
The entire Florida peninsula is in the larger forecast cone, along with the eastern half of the Panhandle. Forecast models vary, with some showing a path across Florida and into the northeastern Gulf by early next week. But others show it going back out into the Atlantic and up the southeastern U-S coast.
Jeanne was centered at latitude 26.1 north, longitude 71.6 west.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
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