FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — As Hurricane Erin intensifies, grows in size, and begins a turn to the north ahead of the U.S. East Coast, a new tropical system appears to be organizing along roughly the same path as Erin in the central Atlantic.

Erin was a Category 4 hurricane as of Monday morning with maximum sustained wind speeds of 130 mph. Forecasters said the storm will intensify further throughout the day, and its wind field will continue to expand.

The storm is now moving to the northwest and is forecast to turn to the north later Monday. Its track will take it about halfway between Bermuda and the U.S. coastline through this week.

Behind Erin is a potential new tropical system that the National Hurricane Center is giving a 50% chance of developing in an area east of the Caribbean. It is currently a disorganized cluster of thunderstorms that could organize into a tropical depression or tropical storm by week’s end.

As of Monday morning, it was too soon to predict possible tracks, but forecasters said it’s a system to keep an eye on.

The next named storm will be Fernand.

As of 5 a.m. Monday, Hurricane Erin was about 105 miles east-northeast of Grand Turk Island and located just east of the southeast Bahamas. Hurricane-force winds extended out about 80 miles from its center and tropical-storm-force winds about 230 miles, the hurricane center said.

Despite Erin’s core tracking well off the U.S. coast, impacts are expected to be felt from Florida through New England.

“Swells generated by Erin will affect the Bahamas, Bermuda, the east coast of the United States, and Atlantic Canada during the next several days,” the hurricane center said. “These rough ocean conditions will likely cause life-threatening surf and rip currents.”

Hurricane Erin briefly reached Category 5 strength on Saturday, a remarkably fast intensification over less than 24 hours.

NOAA Hurricane Hunters found maximum sustained winds had increased to nearly 160 mph during a pass through the storm just after 11 a.m. Saturday.

The storm joins last year’s Hurricane Milton as one of the fastest-intensifying Atlantic hurricanes. Like Erin, Milton also went from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm in about 24 hours before making landfall as a Category 3 in Siesta Key in October.

Erin’s arrival earlier in the season makes it unique by comparison. Sam Lillo, a meteorologist and software engineer for DTN Weather, reported over the weekend that the steep drop in Erin’s central pressure over 24 hours makes it the “fastest deepening Atlantic hurricane” before September, beating Hurricane Emily’s 2005 record.

Most of Erin’s intensification occurred during a 12- to 15-hour window, according to Dan Pydynowski, a meteorologist at AccuWeather. By 5 p.m. Friday, Erin’s winds had remained at only 75 mph.

The hurricane “had all of the ingredients” necessary to rapidly intensify, Pydynowski said.

Several islands along the northeast border of the Caribbean Sea remained under tropical storm watches on Monday.

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