Tropical storm Ernesto is hitting Barbados, St. Lucia, and other nearby Caribbean islands with winds of 85 kilometres an hour.

The storm is headed west, and the eye is on track to enter the eastern Caribbean Sea within a few hours.

Michael Brennan, a forecaster with the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said that means rain, and lots of it.

“The islands could be expecting rainfall amounts of two to three inches, with isolated totals as high as five inches in some of the heavier rain bands,” Brennan explained.

Forecasters predict Ernesto will get stronger as it heads for Jamaica and Cuba.