(RALEIGH) -- The National Hurricane Center upgraded Irene to hurricane status early Monday. North Carolina News Network Meteorologist Mike Moss said Irene is likely to impact the east coast late this week.

"It looks like it is going to be curving to the west and northwest and move across the Bahamas as we get on into parts of Thursday and Friday," said Moss.  "Probably by the time we get into Friday the storm will be up in the vicinity of southern or central Florida."

Moss added that the big question mark is how far west or east the storm track ends up being. "Uncertain at this point, this far out, whether it's going to be something that comes up over land from our south and creates principally a rainfall issue over parts of the state or if it's going to end up moving a little farther east and perhaps being a threat for landfall along the North Carolina coast."

On Monday morning Irene pounded Puerto Rico as a category one storm and was headed for Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  Irene could be a category two hurricane or higher by the time it has the potential to impact Florida late Thursday or early Friday.