Weather hazard maps have nearly 100 colors including six variations of red, a "bisque," "moccasin," cornflower blue, and Dodger blue. Experts are working to simplify the alerts.

On Thursday, Hurricane Erin was several hundred miles off the coast of North Carolina and pushing storm surge and deadly rip currents toward the shore. Two other systems may form right behind.

Conditions appear marginally favorable for additional development in the next day or two, and it could become a short-lived tropical depression. By the end of the week, conditions appear unfavorable for further development. Hurricane Erin is beginning to pull away from the North Carolina coast on Thursday morning.

A watch means the ingredients are there for severe weather. A warning means it is happening. But there are differences based on weather type.

Conditions along the Florida coast are expected to deteriorate Wednesday as Hurricane Erin moves north-northwest off Florida.

The massive hurricane was picking up speed, traveling north at 14 mph, and its center was located about 295 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. A tropical storm warning is in effect for parts of North Carolina and Virginia as the impacts from Erin spread northward.

If a major hurricane approaches Central Florida this season, Maria knows it’s dangerous to stay inside her wooden, trailer-like home. In past storms, she evacuated to her sister’s sturdier house. If she couldn’t get there, a shelter set up at the ...

Hurricane Erin continues to churn in the Atlantic waters hundreds of miles off the U.S., prompting officials to close beaches along the East Coast from the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast.