Forecasters: storms could turn tropical; unsure about landfall.(The Orlando Sentinel)

A tight-bunch of offshore thunderstorms near Daytona Beach, Fla., could turn into a tropical storm as early as Monday, but forecasters said they could not predict whether the growing system would hit land.

Weather analysts said the storm, which churned about 115 miles east of Daytona Beach on Sunday night, would most likely head west toward Volusia County and then turn north toward Georgia.

In response, the National Hurricane Center in Miami issued a tropical storm watch from Titusville, Fla. north along the Florida Atlantic coast to Brunswick, Ga. Winds could reach as high as 50 mph by Monday night, and forecasters are expecting more rainfall for the already sodden Central Florida region.

"We're not forecasting a hurricane at this point," said Michael Gittinger, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in Melbourne. "But it's been a difficult storm. And it's going to be one of those meandering storms that follows an erratic track."

True to form, the system stalled for a few hours late Sunday night, but forecasters still predicted the storm would slowly work its way toward the northeast Florida coast.

Weather analysts have been following the system for days, but only recently did the 150-mile swirl "of deep thunderstorms" become more organized. On Sunday, weather analysts labeled the system a tropical depression, and predicted that it would turn into a tropical storm Monday.

Depressions have wind speeds below 39 mph, while tropical storm gusts range between 39 and 73 mph. Hurricane winds are 74 mph and above.