Hurricane Erin Back to Category 4, on Track to Miss US Coast

Hurricane Erin has re-intensified after moving past Puerto Rico, with the dangerous storm expected to increase in size and remain over the ocean as it churns off the US East Coast later this week.

Erin’s top winds strengthened to 130 miles (209 kilometers) per hour, bumping it back up to a Category 4 storm on the five-step, Saffir-Simpson scale, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. Some additional intensification is forecast over the next 12 hours, the agency added.

The storm, the first hurricane of the six-month season, was 130 miles northeast of Grand Turk Island moving northwest at 12 mph, and heavy rain was forecast through Monday for Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. The system is expected to pass between North Carolina’s Outer Banks and Bermuda later this week.

Erin’s winds increased rapidly on Saturday to reach 160 mph, making it a scale-topping Category 5 storm and one of the earliest examples of such a powerful system to emerge in the Atlantic this year. In July 2024, Beryl became the earliest hurricane to reach top intensity during the Atlantic season.

“Erin has been growing in size, and that trend is likely to continue over the next few days,” US Senior Hurricane Specialist Richard Pasch wrote in a forecast analysis. “The expanding wind field will result in rough ocean conditions over much of the western Atlantic.”