GERMANTOWN, MD (Business Wire) -- Weather stations up the Atlantic seaboard are actively tracking the path of Hurricane Earl as it moves away from Puerto Rico and is now passing well to the east of the Turks and Caicos over warm Atlantic waters.
 
Hurricane and Tropical Storm Watches have been issued for the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Earl`s current forecast brings Earl and its 135 mph sustained winds very near the U.S. East Coast later Thursday and Friday.
 
Along the U.S. East Coast, a Hurricane Watch has been issued from Surf City, N.C. to Duck, N.C. while a Tropical Storm Watch has been issued from Cape Fear, N.C. to Surf City, N.C. As of 5 p.m. EDT, Hurricane Earl was located near 22.0 N, 68.8 W or about 150 miles east-northeast of Grand Turk Island (about 1,000 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C.). Maximum sustained winds remain at 135 mph, making Earl a dangerous Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
 
Earl has turned to the northwest and is moving at 14 mph. Its central pressure has remained at 27.76 inches or 940 mb. Earl will continue to take more of a northwest turn through Wednesday and then start to head on a more northerly route. If the northern turn, driven by high pressure moving off the U.S. East Coast, occurs later, the Outer Banks and the Mid-Atlantic could be in Earl`s bulls-eye. Even if it stays offshore,
 
Earl could still trigger flooding and significant beach erosion along the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Coast as the storm churns up the coast. Fresh on Earl`s heels is the newly formed Tropical Storm Fiona that is expected to follow a similar path to Earl.