Hurricane Erin Tracker: Latest Path & Maps

Erin has become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, with several areas already on alert for heavy rain while strong waves and rip currents are possible along the East Coast of the United States as early as next week.

As of Saturday morning, Hurricane Erin had strengthened into a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of up to 160 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

Erin is currently located about 110 miles north of Anguilla and will continue to track west Saturday before turning toward the west-northwest later tonight and then the north early next week. While some additional strengthening is possible through Saturday afternoon, Erin could see some fluctuations in intensity through the rest of the weekend.

Hurricane Erin displayed an impressive display of rapid intensification overnight into Saturday morning. Over the past 24 hours, Erin’s max winds have increased from 75 mph Friday morning to 160 mph on Saturday morning.

Tropical storm watches are in place for the Northern Leeward Islands of St. Martin, St. Barts, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos and Barbuda.

This weekend, Erin will move north of Puerto Rico and could potentially become even stronger by Sunday morning. The outer bands of this storm could bring 2 to 4 inches of rain to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday and Sunday, which could lead to isolated flash flooding, potential mudslides and gusty winds of 40 to 50 mph.

Moving to next week, Erin will continue to move northwest, staying east of the Bahamas. The storm should begin to slow down and turn north by Monday and will track in between Bermuda and the East Coast of the U.S.

The majority of meteorological modeling continues to keep Erin well off the East Coast of the U.S. by hundreds of miles, but large waves and life-threatening rip currents are still expected to reach the coast from Aug. 20 to Aug. 27.

This would not only be dangerous for anyone entering the waters, but also for property along the coast, as erosion — especially along North Carolina’s Outer Banks — could be a serious threat. The Outer Banks and other parts of North Carolina could see waves of 8 to 12 feet, with other areas of South Carolina and Virginia possibly seeing waves reaching 6 feet next week.

Despite the threat of strong waves along the East Coast, a cold front pushing off of America’s coast is expected to keep Erin out to sea and will also bring below-average temperatures to the Northeast next week.

The National Hurricane Center predicted an above-normal hurricane season for the Atlantic.

August, September and October are the most active months of the Atlantic hurricane season, which ends on Nov. 30.

-ABC News’ Shawnie Caslin Martucci contributed to this report.