Island communities off the coast of North Carolina are bracing for flooding ahead of Hurricane Erin, the year’s first Atlantic hurricane.

While the category 4 storm is not expected to make landfall on the U.S. east coast, it will have an impact nonetheless. Dangerous high surf and rip currents are expected from Florida to New England throughout the week.

The first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season is also one of the largest, fastest-growing hurricanes in recorded history

The Atlantic basin includes the northern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of America, as the Gulf of Mexico is now known in the U.S. per an order from President Trump. NOAA and the National Hurricane Center are now using Gulf of America on its maps and in its advisories.

Hurricane Erin has undergone a period of astonishingly rapid intensification — a phenomenon that has become far more common in recent years as the planet warms. It was a rare Category 5 on Saturday before weakening,

Hurricane Erin has strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane as it threatens to bring life-threatening surf and rip currents to the eastern coast of the United States. However, the effects of Erin are not due to be felt in the UK's weather until next week, as Simon King explains:

Residents in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos on Monday braced for the Atlantic season's first hurricane, the Category 4 Erin, after it strengthened over the weekend while sweeping past the Caribbean.

Some beaches in the Delaware Valley have prohibited swimming as a precaution as Hurricane Erin moves closer to the East Coast.