Hurricane Erin Will Impact the U.S. Even If It Doesn't Make Landfall

Hurricane Erin is ripping through the Atlantic Ocean, passing just east of the Turks and Caicos and southeast Bahamas on Aug. 18 and 19, bringing coastal flooding to the islands. 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. “It looks like it’s going to stay offshore through its entire lifetime, but because it’s so large in size, it is going to be bringing impacts,” says Alex DaSilva, AccuWeather’s lead hurricane expert. The hurricane saw an “exceptionally rare” rapid intensification—growing from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane in 24 hours on Saturday. (The storm has since been downgraded to a category 4.) Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of hurricanes—and the number of extreme rapid intensification events have increased significantly in the past three decades.  As of Monday morning, evacuation orders are in place for the Outer Banks region of North Carolina, where DaSilva says they might see waves of up to 15 feet. “That’s just waves coming into the coast,” he says. “There’s going to be major beach erosion and major coastal flooding issues on the Outer Banks in the middle of the week.” And though other regions might not face evacuations, the storm will create unsafe conditions at beaches across the East Coast as many beachgoers might be looking to squeeze in one last trip before school starts. “Anybody on the East Coast from Miami all the way up to Maine needs to be aware that this week, the rip current risk is going to be extremely high and very dangerous,” says DaSilva. “So even if you’re in Long Island or Massachusetts or Maine—far away from the storm—when you’re at the beaches it’s going to be very dangerous.” Keep an eye out for no swimming signs at the beach, and make sure to listen to any lifeguard instructions. Rip currents are expected to last into next week—at least until Saturday.  “It’s going to be a very dangerous week for beach weather,” says DaSilva. “We don’t want people to venture out there thinking it doesn’t look that bad and get hurt because rip currents are nothing to mess with.”