DATE: Monday, September 8, 1997             TAG: 9709080053

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   36 lines

ERIKA STRENGTHENS BUT POSES LITTLE THREAT

Erika is bigger, but not badder.

After skirting north of the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico, Hurricane Erika intensified rapidly on Sunday. But its course appeared to be of little threat to anything except ships at sea and fishies.

At 5 p.m. Sunday, the center of Erika was about 245 miles northeast of San Juan, moving north-northwest near 6 mph. That general northward motion was expected to continue today. Maximum sustained winds had increased to near 105 mph with gusts to 125 mph.

``Erika has strengthened considerably today,'' said Richard Pasch, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. ``Erika is now a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir/Simpson hurricane scale.'' And, he said, additional strengthening is possible today.

Erika had a well-formed eye in satellite images taken Sunday afternoon and its barometric pressure dropped dramatically, a measure of intensification.

Computer models show a trough moving off the East Coast will gradually pull Erika northward into less friendly waters.

``The problem is that the trough retreats to the north and leaves Erika dawdling over the subtropics'' by Wednesday, Pasch said. Hopes are that by that time, it will be in a cooler environment that will begin to sap its strength.

Meanwhile, storm tides and waves were expected to gradually diminish in the islands of the northeastern Caribbean overnight. ILLUSTRATION: TRACKER'S GUIDE

STEVE STONE

The Virginian-Pilot

[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.]

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