Sept. 25 (UPI) — The Azores were expected to be hit with hurricane conditions starting Wednesday night, the National Hurricane Center said, as Hurricane Gabrielle continued across the Atlantic Ocean.

The eye of the storm was located about 855 miles west of the Azores, the NHC said in its 3 a.m. GMT Thursday update.

It was moving east at a blistering 31 mph and had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, a significant decrease from Tuesday when it was a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. As of Thursday morning, it was a Category 1 hurricane.

The government of Portugal had issued a hurricane watch for all of the Azores, an autonomous region of the European nation, due to Gabrielle on Tuesday, but upgraded it to a warning on Wednesday.

A hurricane warning is generally issued 36 hours before the anticipated first impact of tropical-storm-force winds and is signals that one should complete storm preparations.

“On the forecast track, the center of Gabrielle will approach the Azores today and move across the island chain tonight into early Friday,” the NHC said.

Gabrielle had been traveling northwest and turned north toward Bermuda as it gathered strength last week. But the storm shifted east on Monday and passed east of the island Monday night.

It has steadily weakened over the last few days, and forecasters said it could lose a bit of strength, but it is expected to regain some before moving over the Azores.

The swells from the storm will continue to reach the U.S. eastern coast from North Carolina northward, as well as Atlantic Canada, the NHC said, adding that they are expected to persist for another day or so.

“These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions,” it said.

Gabrielle is the seventh named storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.

Last month, Erin became a Category 5 hurricane with 160-mph winds spreading across a 500-mile area.