Hurricane Ernesto weakening to a Category 1 storm overnight as it bears down on Bermuda.
Hurricane Ernesto weakened to a Category 1 storm overnight as it bore down on Bermuda. The eye of the storm made landfall before 5 a.m. with sustained winds of 85 mph.
Winds have been raging over the past 12 hours for much of Bermuda. The National Museum of Bermuda (on the northwest corner of the island) has a weather sensor that has recorded several wind gusts over 80 mph since last night.
Hurricane Ernesto is expected to slowly move away from Bermuda by Saturday, but the high surf and rip current threat will continue for days on the East Coast.
While Ernesto will only bring hurricane-force winds to the island early Saturday morning, winds will remain strong over the island all day due to Ernesto’s slow movement — it is only moving at 9 mph — and large size.
