Tropical Storm Henri to strengthen into hurricane, head towards northeast

NEW YORK - The northeast including the New York City region was bracing for the impact of Tropical Storm Henri which was expected to become a hurricane on Saturday.

The National Weather Service issued a Hurricane Watch for Suffolk County, Long Island and a Storm Surge Watch for the Bronx, Suffolk County, northern Queens County, southern Nassau County and southern Westchester County.

On Friday afternoon, TS Henri was moving at about seven miles per hour in a slow go off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina with wind speeds at 65 mph.

This was the first Hurricane Watch for the NYC region since August 2011.

Sign up for FOX 5 email newsletters

Henri would likely strongly impact the area with storm surge on Sunday especially the Jersey Shore, south shore of Long Island, east shore of Long Island, Long Island Sound and the shorelines of Connecticut. 

Questions still remained about how the storm would track as it headed north along the east coast of the United States. Some models suggested it might pass offshore and others put it over Cape Cod or even Boston.

Wherever it goes, the storm was expected to bring dangerous rip currents and rough waves to coastlines across the region, along with stronger winds and some rain to the New York City area.

Exactly 30 years ago Thursday, Hurricane Bob made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane in 1991 with sustained winds of 90 miles per hour and wind gusts up to 138 mph. At least 17 people were killed in the storm, the costliest in New England with more than $1.5 billion in property damage — nearly $3 billion in today's dollars.

With the Associated Press.