Hurricane Earl May Skim North Carolina as Strong Storm
"Excellent chance" it'll be a Category 3 as far north as New Jersey, expert says.
As of 11 a.m. ET today, Hurricane Earl's strongest winds were blowing at 135 miles (217 kilometers) an hour, making it a Category 4 storm.
Hurricane Earl became the fifth named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season Sunday, sweeping into the Caribbean and north of Puerto Rico Monday.
Earl's eye—which contains the storm's most intense winds—will probably stay offshore as the storm roars past the Outer Banks Friday, said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for the website Weather Underground.
A slight jog to the west could bring the eye ashore on the North Carolina coast late Thursday night or early Friday morning, but there's only about a 10 percent chance of that happening, Masters said.
Still, even if
