Hurricane Bill may still be far away, but it’s impact on the tri-state is already being felt.

The New York City Parks Department is closing Rockaway Beach, Coney Island, Manhattan Beach, South Beach, Midland Beach and Wolfe’s Pond Beach to swimming due to the approaching hurricane.

The National Weather Service advises that although Bill is hundreds of miles off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean, beaches along the East Coast are beginning to see its effects on Friday. In some areas, eight foot waves or larger have been measured.

Orchard Beach in the Bronx remains open assuming conditions do not deteriorate,

Impacts from Hurricane Bill are anticipated to include heavy surf, rip currents, coastal erosion, beach-over washes, and minor coastal flooding.

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.

(Source: WCBSTV)