Hurricane Erin tracker: See map of the storm's forecasted path
On Sunday, Aug. 17, at 5 a.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center announced that over the next several days, Erin is expected to produce "life-threatening" surf and rip currents at beaches in the Bahamas, the East Coast of the U.S. Bermuda and Atlantic Canada.
As of Sunday morning, the storm is a Category 3 hurricane, according to AccuWeather. But, it is forecast to become a Category 4 on Sunday afternoon.
At 8 a.m. ET, the hurricane center issued an advisory for Hurricane Erin, located north of the Lesser Antilles, a chain of islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea southeast of Puerto Rico.
Heavy rains are expected to continue across Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on Sunday, and flash and urban flooding, landslides and mudslides could impact the islands, according to hurricane center.
The hurricane center is tracking two other disturbances. The first is around 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina, which has a low chance of formation, 10%, over the next seven days. Another disturbance, a tropical wave near the Cabo Verde Islands located west of the coast of Senegal in Africa, also has a low chance, 20%, of developing over the next seven days.
Powerful Hurricane Erin: Storm could mimic damage from earlier hurricanes that stayed offshore
Caribbean islands impacted by Hurricane Erin
On Monday, Aug. 18, the Turks and Caicos Islands are expected to face tropical storm conditions, while those conditions are also possible in the Southeast Bahamas the night of Aug. 17 and throughout Aug. 18.
"Gusts to tropical storm force are possible in Erin's outer rainbands in portions of Puerto Rico today, (Aug. 17), and in the central Bahamas on Monday, (Aug. 18), and Tuesday (Aug. 19)," the hurricane center said.
Hurricane Erin could be near the southeast portion of Florida by Monday, Aug. 18 at 8 p.m. ET.
Storm tracker: Tracking storms in the Atlantic
Spaghetti models for Hurricane Erin
This forecast track shows the most likely path of the center of the storm. It does not illustrate the full width of the storm or its impacts, and the center of the storm is likely to travel outside the cone up to 33% of the time.
When did the 2025 hurricane season begin?
The Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1 and will last through the end of November.
Active hurricane weather typically peaks between mid-August and mid-October.
How do hurricanes form?
Hurricanes are born in the tropics, above warm water. Clusters of thunderstorms can develop over the ocean when water temperatures exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit. If conditions are right, the clusters swirl into a storm known as a tropical wave or tropical depression.
A tropical depression becomes a named tropical storm once its sustained wind speeds reach 39 mph. When its winds reach 74 mph, the storm officially becomes a hurricane.
Prepare now for hurricanes
Delaying potentially life-saving preparations could mean waiting until it's too late. "Get your disaster supplies while the shelves are still stocked, and get that insurance checkup early, as flood insurance requires a 30-day waiting period," NOAA recommends.
Prepare now for hurricanes: Here's what you should do to stay safe before a storm arrives
Julia is a trending reporter for USA TODAY. Connect with her on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and TikTok: @juliamariegz, or email her at jgomez@gannett.com
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Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Stronger, bigger Hurricane Erin forecast to create dangerous surf along US coast
Additional strengthening was forecast for Monday followed by gradual weakening, but Erin was expected to remain a large, major hurricane into midweek. Advertisement Hurricane-force winds extended up to 60 miles (95 kilometers) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 230 miles (370 km). The area of strong winds is expected to grow more over the next few days. At that size, Erin will impact coastal areas even though it isn't forecast to make a direct landfall. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Dare County, North Carolina, declared an emergency and ordered an evacuation beginning Monday of Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks, the thin stretch of low-lying barrier islands that juts far into the Atlantic. Several days of heavy surf and high winds and waves could wash out parts of N.C. Highway 12 running along the barrier islands, the National Weather Service said. Erin, the year's first Atlantic hurricane, reached an exceedingly dangerous Category 5 status Saturday with 160 mph (260 kph) winds before weakening. Advertisement 'You're dealing with a major hurricane. The intensity is fluctuating. It's a dangerous hurricane in any event,' Richard Pasch of the National Hurricane Center said. Erin's outer bands pelted parts of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with heavy rains and tropical-storm winds during the day Sunday. That knocked out power to about 147,000 customers, according to Luma Energy, a private company that oversees the transmission and distribution of power on the island. More than 20 flights were canceled due to the weather. The Coast Guard allowed all ports in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to reopen Sunday as winds and rains decreased. Rough ocean conditions were forecast for parts of the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos. Life-threatening surf and rip currents were forecast into midweek for the Bahamas, Bermuda, the U.S. East Coast and Canada's Atlantic coast as Erin turns north and then northeast. Scientists have linked the rapid intensification of hurricanes in the Atlantic to climate change. Global warming is causing the atmosphere to hold more water vapor and is spiking ocean temperatures, and warmer waters give hurricanes fuel to unleash more rain and strengthen more quickly.
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
Hurricane Erin to churn up life-threatening surf and rip currents along US East Coast and Bermuda
Hurricanes StormsFacebookTweetLink Follow After exploding in strength at a historic rate this weekend, Hurricane Erin is now a sprawling Category 4 storm churning in the Atlantic. The storm's enormous footprint is becoming the biggest concern as it threatens to drive life-threatening rip currents and towering waves toward the eastern US coastline and Bermuda. The storm is forecast to stay well offshore, but its expansive wind field is already sending large swells outward for hundreds of miles, bringing dangerous rip currents to US shores as the storm prepares to move north. Erin's outer rain bands have lashed Puerto Rico, triggering flash flooding and power outages, and started impacting the southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands early Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Large swells from the hurricane will reach much of the East Coast and Bermuda starting Tuesday, with conditions expected to worsen through midweek. 'Even though Erin is expected to remain far offshore, the threat to life from rip currents and high surf along our beaches is very real,' the National Weather Service office in Morehead City, North Carolina, warned in a beach hazards statement. Erin is forecast to curve north-northeast between the US East Coast and Bermuda over the coming days, remaining offshore but strengthening again and growing even larger in size. That means its influence will be felt not through direct landfall, but through water: large, pounding surf, dangerous currents and coastal flooding during high tides. On Sunday, Dare County in North Carolina — where the Outer Banks are located — issued a local state of emergency, which includes a mandatory evacuation order for Hatteras Island. 'Coastal flooding and ocean overwash are expected to begin as early as Tuesday, August 19, 2025 and continue through Thursday, August 21, 2025. Portions of N.C. Highway 12 on Hatteras Island will likely be impassable for several days,' according to a news release. Bermuda also lies in Erin's path of influence, with forecasters expecting the island to see very rough seas and possibly tropical storm–force winds later this week. Elsewhere along the US East Coast, from South Carolina to the Delmarva Peninsula and New Jersey shore, the rip current risk will climb sharply Tuesday through Thursday – even under sunny skies. So far this year, 44 people have died from rip currents and other surf-zone hazards in the US, according to the National Weather Service. Over the past decade, rip currents have proven to be one of the top weather killers in the US, behind only heat and flooding. The weather service says rip currents usually take more lives each year than lightning, hurricanes and tornadoes put together. With peak summer crowds still flocking to the coast, officials are urging beachgoers to stay out of the water when rip current alerts are in effect. 'This is not the week to swim in the ocean,' Dare County Emergency Management said in its evacuation order. 'The risk from surf and flooding will be life-threatening.' The outer bands of Erin continue to produce heavy rainfall across Puerto Rico, with additional rainfall of up to 2 inches expected across the island through Monday night, according to the National Hurricane Center. A flood watch remains in effect for the island through Monday evening, according to the National Weather Service, as the powerful storm left 100,000 people without power, Gov. Jennifer González-Colón said Sunday. Additional rainfall of up to 6 inches is forecast over the Turks and Caicos and the eastern Bahamas through Tuesday. Flash flooding, landslides and mudslides are possible, it added. There are tropical storm warnings in effect in Turks and Caicos Islands and southeast Bahamas. Erin's impact began over the weekend, when it logged one of the fastest intensification bursts on record in the Atlantic. In just over a day, the storm jumped from tropical-storm strength to Category 5, peaking near 165 mph on Saturday as it feasted on exceptionally warm water and favorable atmospheric conditions. It then eased to Category 3 while undergoing an eyewall replacement cycle – a structural reset where a new, larger eyewall forms and steals energy from the old one. Winds dip during the swap, but the storm usually grows in size. Now that the eyewall replacement is complete, Erin has re-intensified to Category 4, with a broader wind field that widens the zone of dangerous surf and rip currents. The hurricane's rapid intensification over the weekend was a stark reminder of how quickly storms can strengthen in a warming climate. It's also unusual to see a Category 5 storm form so early in the season, particularly outside of the Gulf of Mexico. Erin is the Atlantic's first hurricane of the season. Four other systems roamed the Atlantic basin before Erin — Andrea, Barry, Chantal and Dexter — but none were stronger than a tropical storm. The hurricane center has already identified a tropical wave behind Erin that has a medium chance of developing into a tropical depression or tropical storm within the next seven days. It's too early to say whether this system will materialize or where it may go, but forecasters are watching it closely. Despite Erin churning up cooler waters beneath the surface, there's still plenty of warm water for storms to tap into as sea surface temperatures remain well above average. They aren't quite as warm as the record levels reached in 2023 and 2024, but are still far warmer than they'd be in a world that wasn't heating up. August is when the tropics usually come alive: The busiest stretch of the season typically spans from mid-August to mid-October. Forecasters expect above-average tropical activity this year.
UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
Hurricane Erin lashes Bahamas after regaining Category 4 strength
Hurricane Erin is expected to make a turn toward the north and northeast, skirting the Atlantic coast of the United States. Photo courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Hurricane Erin's outer bands were beginning to lash the southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands early Monday after regaining Category 4 strength overnight. The storm was located about 110 miles northeast of Grand Turk Island and 935 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., the National Hurricane Center said in its 2 a.m. AST update. It was moving northwest at 12 mph and was packing maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. Forecasters are warning of life-threatening surf and rip currents across the eastern United States this week. The season's first Atlantic hurricane reached Category 5 status Saturday morning, the highest classification, after rapidly intensifying overnight. It became a Category 1 hurricane on Friday, the year's fifth named storm. Erin dropped to a Category 4 and then a 3 overnight into Sunday, but regained Category 4 strength late Sunday. "Since the large-scale environment is expected to be favorable for about another day, re-strengthening is possible during that time period," NHC forecaster John Cangialosi said. "However, it should be noted that predicting the intensity evolution from internal dynamics are challenging, and models often provide Little reliability in their solutions." The storm was skirting Puerto Rico overnight rather than hitting it directly. On the forecast track, Erin's core is projected to pass to the east and northeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas over Monday, and then move between Bermuda and the U.S. east coast by the middle of the week Erin's outer bands will produce additional rainfall of 2 to 4 inches across the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, with isolated totals of up to 8 inches through Monday. "Locally considerable flash and urban flooding, along with landslides or mudslides, are possible," the NHC said. Also, swells will affect those places, as well as Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands, during the next couple of days, the agency said. "Erin is expected to produce life-threatening surf and rip currents along the beaches of the Bahamas, much of the East Coast of the U.S., Bermuda, and Atlantic Canada during the next several days," Cangialsi said. He said interests along the North Carolina and mid-Atlantic coasts, as well are Bermuda "should monitor the progress of Erin as there is a risk of strong winds associated with the outer rainbands during the middle of next week." Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist, said portions of North Carolina's Outer Banks and coastal Virginia will experience several feet of storm surge, leading to significant coastal flooding and beach erosion. He said the closest landmass for Erin to hit could be southeastern Newfoundland in Canada on Friday. Erin became the first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic storm season two days ago. There have been four named storms so far this season in the Atlantic. Tropical Storm Chantal caused major flooding in North Carolina but has been the only one of the four to make landfall in the United States this year. The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30. The peak hurricane season runs from mid-August through September and into mid-October. Ninety-three percent of hurricane landfalls along the U.S. Gulf Coast and the East Coast have occurred from August through October, the Weather Channel reported in citing data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Last year at this time, there had also been five named storms. The U.S. East Coast is forecast to have rough ocean conditions through the middle of the week as the storm strengthens, the National Hurricane Center said. Tropical storm warnings were issued for the southeast Bahamas, about 300 miles east of Miami, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
