Hurricane Danielle up to 135 mph winds in Atlantic

Hurricane Danielle's maximum sustained winds increased to near 135 mph and could get even stronger, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Hurricane Danielle was located about 545 miles southeast of Bermuda.

This image provided by NASA shows a natural-color image of Hurricane Danielle taken at 12:50 p.m. EDT on Aug. 26, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

NASA/AP

August 27, 2010

Hurricane Danielle became a Category 4 storm Friday far out over the Atlantic as it headed toward Bermuda and threatened to bring dangerous rip currents to the U.S. East Coast.

Danielle's maximum sustained winds increased to near 135 mph (215 kph) and could get even stronger, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

Danielle was located about 545 miles (875 kilometers) southeast of Bermuda and moving north-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph). The hurricane is forecast to pass well east of Bermuda on Saturday night, but large waves and dangerous surf conditions were expected in Bermuda over the next few days.

Swells from Danielle would also begin arriving on the East Coast of the U.S. on Saturday and were likely to cause dangerous rip currents through the weekend.

Also in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Earl was moving west with maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kph). Forecasters said Earl could become a hurricane by Saturday night.

And in the Pacific, Hurricane Frank weakened slightly off Mexico's coast and its winds could slow down even more over the next couple days as it moves over cooler waters.