Hurricane Erin lashes Bahamas and Turks and Caicos with winds, rain, and flooding as forecasters track a new Atlantic tropical threat.

Tropical Storm Watches and Warnings have been issued for parts of North Carolina and Virginia Beach and up to Chincoteague.

Rough surf conditions and dangerous rip currents have forced many beaches to ban swimming and boogie boarding this week.

“Some gradual development of this system is possible during hte middle to latter portion of thw eeek while the system moves westward to west-northwestward at 15 to 20 mph across teh eastern and central tropical Atlantic,” the hurricane center said.

Forecasters are tracking a new disturbance in the Atlantic Ocean as Hurricane Erin, a Category 5 storm, undergoes an eyewall replacement cycle, according to a Saturday night update from the National Hurricane Center.

Jean-Raymond Bidlot, senior scientist in ocean modeling at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) told Newsweek that Erin is forecast to strengthen over the next week as it heads toward the U.S. East Coast, reaching peak intensity offshore from Cape Hatteras.

Besides Erin, we are monitoring two areas of interest in the Atlantic Basin. Both are in the main development region of the Atlantic Ocean. The first has a 60% chance of tropical development over the next 7 days. The latest forecast track keeps this on a similar path as Erin initially, but a little farther to the east once it makes the turn.

Using geochemical analyses of marine sediments, researchers have been able to quantitatively reconstruct the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation over the past 12,000 years. The international research team,

Nova Scotia RCMP have identified a man who died last week after an encounter with Mounties in Aulds Cove, N.S., but they haven't revealed his name publicly. Just before 9 p.m. on Thursday, Antigonish RCMP were called to reports of a man walking on Highway 104 in Aulds Cove.

Hurricane Erin has undergone a period of astonishingly rapid intensification — a phenomenon that has become far more common in recent years as the planet warms. It was a rare Category 5 on Saturday before weakening,