Hurricane Ernesto will cause dangerous beach conditions for East Coast this weekend

(CNN) – Ernesto is poised to deliver a blow to Bermuda and is ramping up coastal danger for much of the United States’ Eastern Seaboard after it thrashed Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.

Powerful winds from the large Category 2 hurricane extend hundreds of miles from its center and will slam Bermuda well before making its closest pass to the island Saturday. A hurricane warning is in effect for the island.

Ernesto’s strength late this week was fueled by the extremely warm waters of the Atlantic — a phenomenon that’s becoming more frequent in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution — but dry air interacting with the system prevented explosive strengthening.

The center of the hurricane will track near or over Bermuda on Saturday, but drenching rain and tropical storm-force wind gusts will begin Friday afternoon over the tiny island, which is about a third of the size of Washington, DC.

More powerful winds and torrential rainfall will likely arrive late Friday or early Saturday. Ernesto could unload 6 to 12 inches of rain over the island through Saturday night, with potential for isolated totals to approach 15 inches.

“This may result in considerable life-threatening flash flooding,” the National Hurricane Center warned Thursday.

Dangerous storm surge and significant coastal flooding will also unfold as Ernesto makes its closest approach to the island Saturday.

Ernesto will have wide-reaching impacts despite remaining so far from large land masses.

The hurricane will create massive waves — perhaps up to 40 feet high — in the open Atlantic that will spread hundreds of miles away. These elevated wave heights will bring rough seas and dangerous rip currents to the US East Coast, the Bahamas and parts of the Caribbean into early next week.

For a majority of the US Atlantic coast, the most dangerous coastal conditions will unfold over the weekend, coinciding with the time many people flock to the beach. Ernesto “will result in very dangerous rip currents (Saturday and Sunday),” the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey, warned Thursday.

Rip currents can exhaust even the strongest swimmers and turn deadly. At least 29 people have been killed in rip currents this year in the US and its territories, according to the National Weather Service.

Beyond Bermuda, Ernesto will pass close to Atlantic Canada early next week and potentially bring some rain, wind and rough seas.