Tropical Storm Erin is on track to begin strengthening in the next day or so, likely to hurricane status as soon as Friday. The National Hurricane Center’s latest forecast keeps the storm north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,

As of the latest update, issued at 4 a.m. CDT Thursday, Tropical Storm Erin was located about 990 miles east of the Leeward Islands and was on a path to the west at 17 mph. (The next update will come later this morning, and updates will become more frequent once watches and warnings go into effect for the storm.)

Swells generated by Erin are likely to cause dangerous surf and rip current conditions in the Virgin Islands and Puerto by the weekend.