Hurricane Florence is surging toward the US and could strengthen to Category 5 - the strongest class of storm before it makes landfall.

Officials warn there is a chance of "life-threatening inundation from rising water" over the next 48 hours as Florence heads for the US East Coast, near Wilmington, North Carolina. Already over 1 million people have been evacuated.

Currently the storm is carrying sustained winds of about 215km/h.

The centre of the storm on the map predicts only a few fixed points where it believes the storm will be, and the rest of the track is created by drawing straight lines between them. The likely destination of the storm is usually expressed as a cone to reflect this uncertainty. To be on the safe side, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, and North and South Carolina have all declared states of emergency.

"This storm is a monster," North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told a news conference on Tuesday. "It's big and it's vicious."

The latest National Weather Service (NWS) update says Florence is expected to "continue a slow strengthening trend for the next day or so". It could weaken on Thursday, according to current predictions, but officials cautioned Florence will most probably remain "an extremely dangerous major hurricane through landfall."