Oct 7 (Reuters) - The center of Hurricane Nate was expected to make landfall on the Mississippi Coast by midnight on Saturday and weaken significantly, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm was about 60 miles (95 km) east of New Orleans with maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour (140 km per hour), the center said. Nate will turn toward the north-northwest and then northeast with an increase in forward speed during the next couple of days, the center said.

Nate is likely to become a tropical storm on Sunday morning, the center said. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)