At a Glance

Hurricane Larry will remain hundreds of miles away from the U.S. East Coast.However, it will generate waves that will lead to rough surf along the East Coast.Several distant hurricanes have generated deadly rip currents in recent years.

Hurricane Larry won't track anywhere near the U.S. East Coast, but like other distant storms, it poses one indirect danger that has proven deadly in the past: rip currents.

Larry intensified into a large Category 3 hurricane over Labor Day weekend and is currently over the open waters of the central Atlantic Ocean.

After it passed east of Bermuda, Larry will curl northeastward toward eastern Newfoundland, Canada, Friday night.

(MAP: Interactive Hurricane Larry Forecast Path)

Larry’s center tracked no closer than 700 miles from the East Coast, so there were no threats from storm surge, flooding rain, damaging winds or tornadoes along the East Coast as we saw last week with .

So why is there concern over a hurricane hundreds of miles away that isn’t anywhere near the East Coast?

Larry Is a Wave Generator

Winds blowing over the ocean produce waves. In the case of a hurricane, these strong winds blowing over larger areas of the ocean generate waves that propagate away from the storm, known as swells.

For a hurricane in the central Atlantic Ocean like Larry, these swells are reaching the north- and east-facing coasts of the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Bahamas and most of the U.S. East Coast.

When these swells reach shallow water near the coast, they produce breaking waves and rip currents that can last for several days before the storm moves away. It's a danger that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Rip Current Danger

A rip current is a strong but narrow current that flows away from the beach. Rip currents can form at any beach with breaking waves.

The speed of a rip current can exceed 6 miles per hour – faster than an Olympic swimmer – and can extend the length of a football field off the coast.

According to the National Weather Service, over 30,000 rip current rescues occur on U.S. beaches each year.

Since 2011, rip currents have claimed an average of 60 lives each year in the U.S., more than double the number of lightning fatalities.

(MORE: How to Spot a Rip Current and How to Survive)

Recent Distant Hurricane Rip Current Deaths

Last September, three rip current drownings – two in Puerto Rico and one in New Jersey – were attributed to , which also tracked east of Bermuda, according to the . Teddy’s pounding waves also produced some coastal flooding from Florida to Maine, including three straight days of major coastal flooding in Charleston, South Carolina.

One week before Teddy, Hurricane Paulette ran over Bermuda and its generated waves led to two rip current deaths in South Carolina and New Jersey.

Perhaps the most distant recent example was 2019's Hurricane Lorenzo.

This hurricane topped out at Category 5 strength , the .

Despite that massive distance, dangerous surf or rip currents generated from Lorenzo were responsible for eight deaths along the East Coast, including a pair of teenagers at Rockaway Beach, New York; a fisherman who fell in the water in Rhode Island; a swimmer in Vero Beach, Florida; and four who died on the beaches of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Track history of Hurricane Lorenzo in 2019.

(Data: NOAA/NHC)

Even if the weather otherwise looks OK, it's a good idea to avoid getting in the water along the East Coast the next day or so due to this rip current threat from distant Hurricane Larry, particularly if there is a yellow (moderate risk) or red (high risk) flag flying at the beach.

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