Hurricane Erin strengthened some on Monday and was a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Erin, the first hurricane of 2025 in the Atlantic, is expected to track east of the Bahamas, but was bringing gusty winds, coastal flooding and heavy rain to the islands as of Monday.
Tropical storm warnings were in effect for those areas.
What about the United States?
The official forecast path from the hurricane center keeps the worst weather from the storm out over the Atlantic and away from the U.S. East Coast.
However, some areas will experience gusty winds, rain and rough seas.
In fact, a mandatory evacuation order was issued for North Carolina’s Hatteras Island on Sunday in anticipation of coastal flooding there.
The hurricane center said that on the official forecast track the center of Erin is expected to track east of the southeastern Bahamas today and move between Bermuda and the East Coast of the United States by the middle of the week.
As of 7 a.m. CDT Monday, the center of Category 4 Hurricane Erin was located about 115 miles north-northeast of Grand Turk Island, or 890 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and was tracking to the northwest at 13 mph.
Erin had sustained winds of 130 mph. The hurricane center said Erin could get a bit stronger today but then will begin to weaken tonight.
Erin peaked as a Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds on Saturday. It is not expected to get that strong again, however.
Nonetheless, forecasters expect Erin to “remain a large and dangerous hurricane through the middle of the week.”
Erin has grown in size. Hurricane-force winds around 80 miles outward from the center of the storm, the hurricane center said. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward about 230 miles.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas. A tropical storm watch is in effect for the central Bahamas.
Those areas could get 2 to 4 inches of rain as Erin passes by, the hurricane center said.
ANOTHER STORM BREWING?
The hurricane center also continued to monitor a tropical wave behind Erin that has the potential to become the next named storm.
As of Monday it was in the eastern tropical Atlantic and disorganized.
But it could get its act together and become a tropical depression later this week, forecasters said.
It is expected to stay on a path to west or west-northwest this week.
The hurricane center expects it to be approaching the Leeward Islands by the end of the week.
The next name on the 2025 Atlantic storm list is Fernand.
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