Hurricane Erin Expected To ‘Explode’ Into Category 4 Storm: See Possible VA Impacts

Erin reached hurricane status Friday in the Atlantic Ocean, with AccuWeather forecasters predicting it will reach monster Category 4 strength by Monday morning.

The first Atlantic hurricane of the 2025 season is more than 500 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands. Erin is expected to rapidly intensify into a major hurricane while tracking between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast, experts said.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph as of 2 p.m. Friday as it moved west-northwest across the Atlantic at 17 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"Erin is forecast to explode into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it moves across very warm waters in the open Atlantic. Water temperatures at the surface and hundreds of feet deep are several degrees higher than the historical average," Accuweather’s lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said.

The National Hurricane Center defines the type of weather disturbance by the strength of its wind speed. A hurricane is a storm with sustained wind speed of at least 74 miles per hour.

A category 1 storm has sustained winds of 74-95 mph, while a category 4 storm packs winds of 130-156 mph. “Catastrophic damage will occur,” at that strength, the NHC said.

The Washington Post reported that Erin should become a Category 4 storm on Monday, but it is still expected to avoid landfall on the East Coast.

Though experts said it’s too early to predict specific impacts of wind, rain, or storm surge to the East Coast, Virginia beachgoers should keep an eye on the waves as the storm intensifies.

“As Erin moves into the Western Atlantic and strengthens, it’s gonna produce a large wave field,” National Hurricane Center Deputy Director Jamie Rhome said Friday, with a chart of the storm’s wave field.

According to Rhome, brighter colors in the chart indicate higher ocean waves, with the potential to reach up to 35 feet.

“As those waves move toward the East Coast of the United States, they’re going to produce a big rip current risk later in the weekend, early next week,” Rhome said. “So if you’re going to the beach, you really have to pay attention.”

Forecasters predict Erin will pass about 200 miles north of Puerto Rico and track north between the United States and Bermuda, forecasters said. While the eye is expected to stay well offshore of the East Coast, the storm is expected to grow in size and intensity.

Erin is expected to eventually turn north into the Atlantic, and how greatly the system impacts the United States will be determined by when the turn occurs.

If it tracks further west, “protruding coastal areas — such as North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Long Island, New York, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts — face a higher risk of direct and potentially severe tropical storm or hurricane conditions than much of the southern Atlantic, mid-Atlantic and northern New England coasts,” AccuWeather meteorologists said.

Regardless of Erin’s exact track, Rhome said the threat of rip currents will still materialize and advised those headed to the beach to swim near a lifeguard and check hazard warnings at their destination beforehand.

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