Hurricane Lee began sending dangerous waves and rip currents to parts of the East Coast of the United States on Sunday night (10). More parts of the region are expected to be impacted in the coming days as the storm moves up the Atlantic, forecasters say.
The Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph is about 310 miles (500 km) north of the Leeward Islands in the northern Caribbean and has tracked northwest, the National Hurricane Center said.
The powerful storm, which has fluctuated in intensity throughout its time over the Atlantic, could become Category 4 on Monday morning before wavering again later in the week, forecasters said.
It is still too early to determine Lee’s long-term path later this week and how significant the impacts could be for the northeastern U.S. states, Bermuda and Canada.
The storm is already generating waves that affect many of the Caribbean islands, such as the British and American Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispanola (which includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Turks and Caicos, Bahamas and Bermuda. These rip currents are life-threatening, the hurricane center said Sunday.
“Dangerous waves and rip currents have begun to batter portions of the southeastern U.S. East Coast and are expected to worsen and spread northward along much of the U.S. East Coast during the next several days,” the hurricane center said.
The storm grew larger — though not stronger — on Sunday night. Hurricane-force winds extended to within 120 km of the center by 11 p.m. ET, the agency said — up from 70 km recorded six hours earlier.
By midweek, Lee is expected to turn north, likely moving between Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast later this week.
Lee, which was a Category 1 storm on Thursday, intensified with exceptional speed to Category 5 status as it moved westward across the Atlantic, more than doubling its wind speed to 265 km/h in just one day.
Vertical wind shear and an eyewall replacement cycle — a process that occurs with most large, long-lived hurricanes — led to the storm’s weakening, the hurricane center said.
See also: Hurricane Idalia hits Florida with winds of 200 km/h
With information from Mary Gilbert and Dave Hennen
Source: CNN Brasil
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