Hurricane Erin weakened to a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph while its outer bands pounded the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with gusty winds and heavy rains early Sunday.

Hurricane Erin intensified from Category 3 to Cat 5 in just a couple of hours. Though not expected to make landfall, Erin will create dangerous rip currents next week.

Hurricane Erin is forecast to remain well offshore but still bring hazardous currents and possible erosion like previous offshore hurricanes before it.

Erin became one of the earliest Category 5 hurricanes on record on Saturday. The storm will lash parts of the northern Caribbean on Sunday and Monday.

Powerful Hurricane Erin has undergone a period of astonishingly rapid intensification — a phenomenon that has become far more common in recent years as the planet warms. It was a rare Category 5 for a time Saturday before becoming a Category 4,

Spaghetti models predict Erin will skirt the U.S. East Coast by hundreds of miles as it moves north through next week.