Bill weakened to a Category 3 storm early Thursday, but forecasters cautioned warm Atlantic waters could feed its growth back to Category 4 by Friday, meaning winds of 131 mph to 155 mph.

“It’s moving over waters of 84, 85 degrees Fahrenheit, which could provide some fuel to it. We still think it could restrengthen back into a Category 4. The environmental conditions appear to be right,” said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center.

The watch for Bermuda means hurricane winds could strike within 36 hours. It comes after former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, arrived in Bermuda on Wednesday for a 3- or 4-day getaway.

The government urged islanders to secure boats and finish other storm preparations by Friday afternoon. Officials put up warning signs at beaches along the south shore because of large swells and dangerous rip currents expected ahead of the storm. Home Affairs Minister Walter Roban urged people not to swim until further notice.

Some flight delays are possible, said Aaron Adderley, general manager of Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport.

“At this point, it’s fair to say that one can expect some disruption — but to what extent, remains to be seen,” he said.

The storm is expected to pass between Bermuda and the U.S. eastern coast on Saturday. Forecasters warned large swells generated by the hurricane could cause extremely dangerous surf and rip currents at beaches on one of the final weekends of summer.

“Those swells are known to be deadly,” Blake said. “It’s just going to be very dangerous this weekend.”

The center’s five-day track showed Bill staying well out to sea off the southern and northern U.S. coast. Bill was forecast to inch closer to shore as it moves north but only come close to landfall in Canada’s Maritime provinces before veering back out into the North Atlantic.

As of 11 a.m. Thursday, Bill was centered about 380 miles north of the Leeward Islands and about 695 miles south-southeast of Bermuda. The hurricane was moving northwest near 18 mph.

Bill is the first Atlantic hurricane this year after a quiet start to the season that runs from June through November. The Miami center lowered its Atlantic hurricane outlook on Aug. 6 after no named tropical storms developed in the first two months.

The revised prediction was for three to six hurricanes, with one or two becoming major storms with winds over 110 mph. Researchers at Colorado State University have also lowered their Atlantic season forecast to four hurricanes, two of them major.

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The National Hurricane Center said people in the Leeward Islands should monitor Bill’s progress, though the core of the dangerous storm was expected to pass well northwest of the islands late Wednesday and early Thursday.

Hurricane hunter planes found that Bill, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, had strengthened to a Category 3 storm Tuesday night.

“The wind sheer is light and the waters are warm,” said Todd Kimberlain, a forecaster at the center. “Those are two essential ingredients not just for the formation, but also the maintenance, of hurricanes.”

Bill was centered about 555 miles east of the Leeward Islands, moving west-northwest near 15 mph.

The most significant threat could be to Bermuda, which the storm could pass in three or four days, Kimberlain said. But it also could move directly between Bermuda and the eastern coast of the U.S. without making landfall.

Either way, people near the coast can expect wave swells and rip currents in the next few days, Kimberlain said.

Meanwhile, people in flood-prone Haiti and the Dominican Republic awoke to good news Tuesday as it appeared Ana, the first named storm of the Atlantic season, had largely spared their shared island.

The two countries that share the island of Hispaniola are vulnerable to storms, with many impoverished people clustered along rivers, but there were no reports of major damage from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ana. The system had been downgraded to a tropical depression and then largely dissipated before reaching Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but its rains were still considered a potential threat.

“The rain fell but it did not hit anywhere very hard,” said Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of Haiti’s civil protection department.

Haiti is particularly susceptible to catastrophic flooding because most of the trees have been stripped away to make charcoal and clear farmland and the bare, mountainous terrain cannot hold back the water. A series of storms last year killed hundreds of people and left thousands struggling to find food.

Forecasters had revised their Atlantic hurricane season predictions for this season after the first two months passed without any named storms developing.

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Hurricane Bill forms; Guillermo weakens

MIAMI — Hurricane Bill has formed in the Atlantic, the first hurricane of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Guillermo has weakened to a tropical storm far out in the Pacific.

Hurricane Bill’s maximum sustained winds are near 75 mph. The National Hurricane Center expects Bill to get stronger and could become a major hurricane by Wednesday.

Bill is centered about 1,160 miles east of the Lesser Antilles and is moving quickly west-northwest near 22 mph.

Elsewhere, Tropical Guillermo’s maximum sustained winds are near 70 mph with the storm expected to continue weakening. Guillermo is centered about 815 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii, and moving west-northwest near 15 mph.

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