Hurricane Earl strengthened into a major Category 3 storm on Monday, as it battered the Caribbean’s Northern Leeward Islands on a track expected to put it off the U.S. East Coast later this week.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Earl, now the second major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, was packing top sustained winds of 120 miles per hour.

Any hurricane with sustained winds between 111 and 130 mph is considered major and gets a Category 3 rating on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity, meaning it is capable of causing catastrophic damage.

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