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.

New York and New Jersey — along with most East Coast states — are facing threats of life-threatening rip currents and massive waves from Hurricane Erin as the massive Category 2 cyclone creeps continues to churn off the coast.

“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.

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.

Erin is the first hurricane to develop over the Atlantic this year, and meteorologists are closely tracking its path and forecast.

Scientists detect unusually deep earthquakes beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge seafloor, finding CO2 present there in magma.