Erin has become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season with strong waves and rip currents possible along the East Coast of the United States as early as next week.

After rapidly intensifying into a Category 5 storm on Saturday, Hurricane Erin has since been downgraded to a Category 4 system with sustained winds of 130 mph. However, it is expected to intensify and grow in size over the next few days.

Rip currents are the third leading cause of deaths from hurricanes, and they can happen on a sunny day hundreds of miles from the storm.

Hurricane Erin could 'at least double or triple in size' next week and the track has shifted south, but remains likely to turn away from the East Coast.

Tropical Storm #Erin is now less than 1000 miles from the Virgin Islands- looks like it becomes a hurricane by late Friday then could rapidly intensify passing just north of Puerto Rico. High surf & rip currents this weekend in the Leeward Islands. THEN the Bermuda high steering… pic.twitter.com/5SUhfTJ7X4

For now, most reliable computer models that meteorologists use show Erin curving away from the United States, spinning off the East Coast later in August.

For parts of eastern North America, that might get us back 400 years. However, it really isn’t until the last 100 years that we have a good record of earthquakes measured using seismometers. This means much of our knowledge of earthquakes on the East Coast comes from historical records of large, noticeable events in places where people noticed them.

A mysterious light spotted in the night sky over the eastern United States sparked UFO speculation online, but was likely the result of a rocket launch.