Hurricane Ike Strengthens to Dangerous Category 4

Hurricane Ike strengthened rapidly overnight into a Category 4 hurricane. The monster storm is rotating fiercely in the open Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center said it was too early to tell whether it would threaten the United States.

Hurricane Ike posed no immediate threat to land as Thursday morning. However, the storm has strengthened explosively.

The hurricane grew to an intense Category 4 in just a few hours from a tropical storm.

The latest hurricane model shows the storm tracking towards the southern Bahamas. It could reach land early next week but it was too early to track where it will move from there.

The National Hurricane Center also said it was too soon to say whether Ike would turn towards Florida or if it will threaten U.S. oil and natural gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico.