Earl becomes tropical storm as it passes by Mass.

MIAMI  -- Earl weakened as it passed by New England, and the once powerful hurricane is now a tropical storm.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say the storm is still expected to bring strong winds and rain to portions of New England. Earl is expected to pass offshore of Cape Cod overnight and reach the coast of Nova Scotia on Saturday.

The storm has swirled up the Eastern Seaboard after sideswiping North Carolina's Outer Banks, where it caused flooding but no injuries and little damage.

HURRICANE EARL EFFECTS IN NEW ENGLAND

A number of watches and warnings in New England were issued in advance of Earl.

CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT

Locally, 7's Pete Bouchard said the storm would still impact the area.

"Nantucket and the outer Cape will still get hurricane (74mph or greater) force wind gusts, and there may be some power outages and light damage, but for all points 'off Cape,' this will be a run-of-the-mill nor'easter...or less," Pete writes.

The worst of the storm for the Cape and Islands was taking place around 11 p.m., according to Pete.

To read Pete's entire blog entry on Earl, click here.

Stay with the 7Weather team and WHDH.com as we track Earl.

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