Tropical Storm Erin Likely to Become a Hurricane Today, Major Hurricane by the Weekend

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is now issuing official watches for parts of the northern Caribbean, as Tropical Storm Erin, on the cusp of becoming a hurricane, begins to trigger the first travel itinerary changes of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.

As of early Friday morning, Erin was about 570 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, producing winds of about 70 mph, which keeps the storm in the Tropical Storm category. However, the NHC expects the storm to strengthen steadily as it moves west, eventually reaching hurricane status sometime on Friday and then possibly major hurricane status by the weekend.

The big question now is what direction Erin will take over the next few days. Right now, the NHC says that the storm is likely to move near or just north of the northern Leeward Islands over the weekend. After that, the storm is likely to turn north, but from there, there is still a fairly cloudy forecast.

“There is still uncertainty about what impacts Erin may bring to portions of the Bahamas, the east coast of the United States, and Bermuda in the long range,” the NHC said.

As of Friday morning, the NHC has put a Tropical Storm Watch on for Anguilla and Barbuda, along with St. Martin and St. Barts, which means that tropical storm conditions are possible within 48 hours. The NHC is also warning those in the British Virgin Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico that they “should monitor the progress of Erin.”

Erin’s Travel Impact

For now, there haven’t been many travel changes due to Tropical Storm Erin, but that could change quickly as the storm moves west into the Caribbean.

BermudAir, which operates out of Anguilla and Bermuda, said that it was “monitoring Tropical Storm Erin closely,” but as of Friday morning, all flights were operating as scheduled.

The one change that was made came from Royal Caribbean. Vision of the Seas, which was supposed to spend two nights in Bermuda this week, instead called on Port Canaveral before heading back to Baltimore for its scheduled turnover on Aug. 14.

Other cruise lines, including Carnival, said that changes are likely to come only at the last minute, which is typical of cruising in the Caribbean during hurricane season. No changes have come from Carnival or Norwegian Cruise Line due to Erin, though Norwegian did have to reroute Norwegian Star, which is sailing in Greenland, because of wind gusts this week.