Urgent warning issued for Hurricane Humberto as it strengthens to category 4

A tropical storm that meteorologists have been tracking across the Atlantic has been upgraded to a category 4 hurricane.

Earlier this week, weather experts were updating people in the US about Tropical Storm Humberto, which marks this year's eighth named tropical storm, in light of it having hit wind speeds of 34 knots.

People on the East Coast of America and the Bahamas have been urged to keep an eye on the storm's movements over the weekend.

FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross said: "There are too many imaginable scenarios to enumerate, but the bottom line is that everyone in the Bahamas and along the East Coast from Florida to the mid-Atlantic should plan to stay informed this weekend."

Now, Humberto has officially become a hurricane and reached category 4 yesterday (September 26).

As per The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, a category 4 hurricane means that 'catastrophic damage will occur'.

Hurricane Humberto is heading across the Atlantic (NOAA)

"Well-built framed homes can sustain severe damage with loss of most of the roof structure and/or some exterior walls," the National Hurricane Center's website (NHC) warns.

"Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed. Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months."

It's forecast that Hurricane Humberto will not make landfall but, with the strength of it in mind, experts have warned of possible life-threatening rip currents.

Hurricane Humberto is generating strong windswells (a type of wave caused by local winds blowing over the water) that are expected to reach the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda, Newsweek reports.

Parts of the Bahamas are facing weather warnings (Getty Stock Image)

There are no coastal warnings in place in the US at the moment but there are warnings for Central Bahamas, including Cat Island, the Exumas, Long Island, Rum Cay, and San Salvador, as well as portions of the northwestern Bahamas, including Eleuthera, New Providence, the Abacos, Berry Islands, Andros island, and Grand Bahama Island, says the NHC.

The news of Humberto becoming a category 4 hurricane comes amid fears of the 'Fujiwhara Effect' taking place.

On Thursday it was reported that there were two storms (Hurricane Humberto and what's now known as Potential Tropical Cyclone 9 — previously Invest 94L) making their way across the Atlantic and there was a chance they could collide with one another.

The rare phenomena has different outcomes: the stronger hurricane absorbing the other, the two storms spinning around each other 'before shooting off on their own paths', or them colliding and becoming one larger, stronger storm.