Hurricane Erin has been downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane but is gaining in size and raising the risk of life-threatening surf later this week along the U.S.

Erin has weakened to a Category 2 hurricane. Erin is expected to stay at category. Erin has tropical storm force winds stretching out over 200 miles from the center. The entire wind field of Erin stretches over 500 miles.

The Ocean City Beach Patrol has closed the ocean to swimming, wading and surfing Tuesday as tropical storm activity off the coast brings dangerous conditions to the resort town.

Tracking Hurricane Erin, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which weakened to a Category 3 storm early Sunday.

The storm will remain a major hurricane through the middle of the week, according to the National Hurricane Center.

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

While Erin is expected to take a northward turn in the Atlantic, a new system off the coast of Africa has the National Hurricane Center's attention.

NOAA's GOES-19 satellite captured images of Hurricane Erin as it developed in the Atlantic and then rapidly strengthened into a Category 5 storm.