Erin becomes first hurricane of Atlantic season – Newsday

📅 Published: August 16, 2025

📰 Source: newsday_com

Curated by AllZimNews.com

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hurricane Center announced Friday that Tropical Storm Erin is now a Category 1 hurricane, packing sustained winds of at least 75 mph.

While NOAA said forecast models had Erin tracking far-off the East Coast, the agency said it could still impact South Shore Atlantic Ocean beaches by midweek next week with “dangerous surf” posing possible erosion damage and also generating potentially life-threatening rip currents.

On Friday, the system was still hundreds of miles east of the northern Leeward Islands and the Caribbean Sea, including the U.

Virgin Islands, St.

Martin, Anguilla, St.

Kitts, Antigua and Montserrat.

Though the projected path of Hurricane Erin remains uncertain, most best-assessed storm tracks predict the storm will turn north toward Bermuda with no direct impact to the East Coast.

Erin is the first tropical storm system this season to evolve into a hurricane, NOAA said.

Four prior Atlantic storm systems — Andrea, Barry, Chantal and Dexter — all failed to achieve hurricane strength.

Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.

At this time last year, the Atlantic already had seen three hurricanes: Beryl, Debby and Ernesto.

A Category 1 hurricane is the weakest of the five hurricane categories: Category 1 (sustained winds of 75-94 mph); Category 2 (96-110 mph); Category 3 (111-129 mph); Category 4 (130-156 mph); and Category 5 (157 mph and higher).