Hurricane Erin is maintaining its strength as a major hurricane, churning in the Atlantic Ocean and delivering tropical storm force winds to Turks and Caicos and parts of the Bahamas. Erin’s influence will be increasingly felt along the tri-state area’s coastline during the latter half of the week.

Though Hurricane Erin will not make landfall in the U.S., here's why a Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for parts of North Carolina.

While Erin is expected to take a northward turn in the Atlantic, a new system off the coast of Africa has the National Hurricane Center's attention.

Erin briefly became a Category 5 hurricane over the weekend and weakened to Category 3 status as it moved north and west of Puerto Rico this weekend. It is now a Category 4 storm and will be moving more north in the next few days.

Tropical Storm Erin's path puts some homeowners at heightened risk, as the storm starts building into a hurricane tracked by meteorologists.

Invest 98L, the tropical system that emerged near Mexico early Wednesday, Aug. 13, is tracking toward Texas. Will it impact the state?

The center of Hurricane Erin is expected to remain offshore, but forecasters expect eastern North Carolina to see coastal flooding, tropical-storm-force winds, overwash and beach erosion.

Hurricane- and tropical-storm-force winds now extend up to 80 and 230 nautical miles from the eye, respectively. Erin’s eyewall has also grown and is now about 30 nautical miles in diameter, according to the National Hurricane Center.