OAN Staff Abril Elfi and Katherine Mosack
6:16 PM – Friday, August 15, 2025
Hurricane Erin is intensifying, threatening to reach Category 4 and become the first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.
Hurricane Erin is the fifth named storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which is during the months of June through November, and reaches its peak in September. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), as of Friday afternoon, Erin reached 75 miles per hour (mph), taking it from a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds between 39 and 73 mph and placing it as a Category 1 hurricane.
So far this year, Tropical Storm Chantal was the only one to have the eye of the storm make contact with land, causing deadly flooding in July in North Carolina.
The NHC stated that tropical storm conditions are possible during the next 48 hours in the islands of Anguilla, Barbuda, St. Barthelemy, St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius.
According to forecast models, Erin has the potential to become a major Category 4 hurricane with winds of at least 130 mph on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale by next week. The most severe hurricane rating on the scale is a Category 5, based on wind speeds. Once a storm’s winds reach 111 mph, they are considered major hurricanes rated Category 3 and up.
NHC stated Erin’s center is predicted to move just north of the northern Leeward Islands this weekend.
The Hurricane Center said Friday morning that there is still considerable ambiguity about Erin’s exact impact on the United States’ East Coast, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.
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