Hurricane Erin to turn north Tuesday, creating life-threatening rip currents in Long Island waters through Thursday, forecasters say

Long Islanders should stay out of ocean waters this week, forecasters warned, as Hurricane Erin produces life-threatening rip currents across the Eastern Seaboard.

Although forecasters expect Erin, which was a Category 4 as of Monday afternoon, will remain hundreds of miles out to sea, its winds will bring dangerous surf and rip currents to East Coast beaches, including those in Nassau and Suffolk, as the storm turns north Tuesday and ultimately northeast into the Atlantic Ocean.

"We'll be at a high risk Tuesday through Thursday" for rip currents "and possibly into Friday as well," meteorologist Jay Engle with the National Weather Service's Upton office said Monday afternoon. "Even strong swimmers can get overwhelmed by riptides. There will probably be red flags at the beaches ... recommending swimmers not to go in."

Hurricane Erin was about 695 miles southwest of Bermuda and about 815 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, as of 5 p.m. Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The first Atlantic storm of the year will possibly cause beach erosion from the Carolinas to Long Island this week, forecasters say.

"There's a threat of dune erosion," Engle said of Erin's coastal impacts to Long Island. "Some minor beach flooding could become more widespread with each successive high tide starting Tuesday evening into Thursday evening."

On Monday, the National Weather Service warned of a chance for minor flooding in Nassau County, where the agency issued a coastal flood statement from 3 to 8 p.m., said Dave Radell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton.

"As it begins to head north, it'll start to weaken," Radell said. "But it's a pretty large system, and so impacts are going to be felt far away from the center of the storm."

The storm reached 140 mph Monday and was tracking northwest at 10 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm is blowing hurricane-force winds 80 miles from its center, and tropical-storm-force winds up to 230 miles from its center.

The Hurricane Center predicted Erin will continue its northward turn Tuesday and then turn northeast between the U.S. East Coast and Bermuda, remaining a large and powerful hurricane during the mid-to-late week period.

Despite the storm raging offshore, Long Island's forecast calls for a mostly sunny week with highs in the upper 70s to lower 80s.

"Folks will notice [it's] a little bit cooler, a little bit less humid than we've had," Radell said. "So weather wise a pretty decent week ahead."

Ocean seas are likely to build to 12- to-15-plus feet Thursday into Friday morning off Suffolk County, with the highest south and east of Moriches Inlet, and then subside into the weekend, according to the Hurricane Center. Dangerous conditions will impact the entrance to eastern Long Island Sound and inlets. There is also a low chance of gale wind gusts Thursday, particularly southeast of Moriches Inlet.

The storm wasn't expected to directly hit the East Coast, but by doubling or tripling in size its impacts already threatened the North Carolina Outer Banks, the thin, low stretch of barrier islands off the mainland, that juts far out into the Atlantic, Dare County emergency officials said in declaring a state of emergency.

Erin, the first Atlantic hurricane of 2025, reached an exceedingly dangerous Category 5 status Saturday with maximum winds of 160 mph before weakening. The storm's maximum sustained winds were 125 mph Sunday afternoon, according to the Hurricane Center in Miami.

Newsday's Maureen Mullarkey and the AP contributed to this story.