Hurricane Earl continues to grow in strength and is now a major Category 4 storm causing widespread damage across the northeastern Caribbean and its now predicted that the path of the storm could extend further than originally forecast.

In our last update Earl was still a category 3 storm heading northwest and was expected to impact the eastern coast of the U.S. by later this week. However the rapid development of the hurricane has surprised people and it’s now being forecast that after the storm impacts the East Coast it will turn back out to sea and then could even affect New England or the far east of Canada, according to Mike Melia for the Associated Press over on the Washington Post.

The National Hurricane Center is now warning residents from North Caroline to Maine to keep alert for the latest update. Meteorologist Wallace Hogsett said, “Any small shift in the track could dramatically alter whether it makes landfall or whether it remains over the open ocean. I can’t urge enough to just stay tuned.”

Parts of the Caribbean have already been severely affected by Hurricane Earl, with floods and damaged homes on islands such as Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Maarten. Many countries have had power outages because of fallen power lines. By the early hours of this morning the storm was positioned 140 miles north-northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, moving west-northwest at 13 mph, with sustained maximum winds of up to 135 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center latest update.

There’s also news of another weather system developing as Tropical Storm Fiona formed in the Atlantic yesterday but so far it’s not expected that this will reach hurricane strength within the next few days. We’ll try to keep you up-to-date during the day with more developments so check back with us. Are you in an area in the projected path for Hurricane Earl? We’d welcome your comments about this.

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