Hurricane Earl set sights on Washington DC, New York and Boston

Hurricane Earl has grown into a category 3 hurricane and appears to be growing stronger as it makes its way closer to the East Coast of the United States. The hurricane has continued to grow in size as it has followed Danielle across the Atlantic Ocean. Earl however is following a different path and projections are now indicating there is a strong potential for the storm to touch communities along the East Coast of the U.S. including as far south as North Carolina and north up to parts of Maine.

The path of the hurricane will become more evident over the next 24-48 hours as communities along the East Coast will need to begin making preparation for a potential strike later this week if the storm continues on its westward path. Hurricane Danielle reached stage four status late last week but steered clear of all major land masses thanks to the support of a high pressure system that pushed the storm back out to sea. The high pressure system is still in the atmosphere and will help in pushing Earl back out to the Atlantic, but there remains a strong possibility that parts of the storm will have an impact on land.

Hurricane earl's potential path from National Hurricane Center

Following in Earls footsteps remains another tropical storm Fionna which also could pose a challenge to the East Coast. Presently Fionna is viewed as a large tropical depression, but experts are giving it in excess of ninety percent chance of reaching tropical storm/hurricane status this week. The potential string of damaging hurricanes come on the heels of the five year anniversary of hurricane Katrina, regarded as the worst storm to ever hit the U.S.