- - Hurricane Erin Grows, Brushes Bahamas, And Will Be A Major East Coast Rip Current, Wave Generator This Week

Jonathan Erdman August 18, 2025 at 9:15 PM

Hurricane Erin is once again intensifying as it brushes the Bahamas, but has also grown significantly in size, and while it won't landfall in the U.S., it will generate dangerous high surf and rip currents along the entire Eastern Seaboard this week.

(MORE: Erin Maps Tracker - Spaghetti Models, Forecasts, More)

Where Erin Is Now

Erin's center is currently only about 100 miles north-northeast of the Turks and Caicos, moving northwest.

It remains a powerful Category 4 hurricane. Just as importantly, though, the size of Erin's tropical storm and hurricane force winds has increased dramatically, as expected.

Current Wind FieldWatches And Warnings

Tropical storm alerts have been issued in parts of the central and southeast Bahamas, as well as the Turks and Caicos.

Though the core of strongest winds with Erin will miss these areas, tropical storm force winds are currently affecting parts of these areas covered by warnings.

Watch, WarningsPath, Intensity Forecast

As the forecast path graphic below shows, Erin will curl north, then northeastward between North Carolina and Bermuda and generally south of Atlantic Canada this week.

Erin is expected to remain a formidably strong hurricane early this week with some fluctuations in intensity possible. While wind shear is expected to cap off any further intensification by mid-week, Erin's large size means we can't yet rule out any tropical storm force gusts in outer rainbands later this week either for the Outer Banks of North Carolina or for Bermuda.

That said, we do not expect Erin's strongest winds to come anywhere close to either eastern North Carolina or Bermuda.

Storm Info And Projected PathPotential Impacts

-Southeast Bahamas, Caribbean: While the heaviest rain is over, some isolated bands of heavy rain could lead to local flooding over Puerto Rico Monday.

Up to 6 inches of additional rain is possible over parts of Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos, southeast and central Bahamas through Tuesday. That could lead to areas of flash flooding and landslides in higher terrain.

Tropical storm force winds, high surf and some minor storm surge flooding are also possible in the southeast and central Bahamas, as well as the Turks and Caicos through Tuesday.

-Bermuda, U.S. East Coast: To emphasize, we do not expect the core of Erin's strongest hurricane winds to affect any part of the U.S. East Coast, nor Bermuda.

But Erin's large and increasing size means it will generate high surf and dangerous rip currents along the U.S. East Coast much of this week, from Florida to New England.

Of all hurricane hazards, 16% of all fatalities come from rip currents and rough seas. Please stay out of the Atlantic waters this week.

These swells pounding onshore could also lead to some coastal flooding at high tide along parts of the East Coast, particularly in the Carolinas along east or southeast-facing beaches. The NWS office in Morehead City, North Carolina, said parts of Highway 12 in the Outer Banks are at risk of overwash and washouts beginning Tuesday, continuing into at least Thursday. An evacuation of Hatteras Island was already ordered due to this coastal flood threat.

And as alluded to earlier, we can't completely rule out a brush of tropical storm wind gusts along the Outer Banks of North Carolina or Bermuda in outer rainbands later this week, given Erin's large size.

Wave Heights Forecast Erin's History

Meteorologists first began watching the area of instability that eventually formed Hurricane Erin several days before the storm was named Monday of this past week.

The system remained a tropical storm as it traveled westward across the Atlantic, weakening slightly mid-week as it battled cooler waters.

Thanks to warmer waters in the western Atlantic, Erin began a period of explosive rapid intensification starting on Friday, going from a tropical storm to Category 5 in just under 30 hours, and from a Category 3 to a Category 5 in just under 6 hours.

Erin has also joined a rare group of only five hurricanes that have wind speeds of at least 145 mph by August 16 since 1970, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach. Erin is the first Category 5 hurricane since Milton and Beryl in 2024.

Erin began to undergo an eyewall replacement cycle on Saturday, setting off a period of fluctuation in intensity and bringing the storm back to Category 4 intensity by Saturday evening.

While Erin has been skirting around islands in the Caribbean, a wind gust of 57 mph was recorded on the island Tortola in the British Virgin Islands Saturday evening, but sustained tropical-storm-force winds have remained to the north of the islands so far.

Erin dumped up to 6 inches of rain in Puerto Rico and up to 7 inches of rain in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the National Weather Service.

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL General News”