FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Lee is now a Category 4 storm, still rapidly intensifying in the eastern Atlantic and predicted to reach Category 5 strength, the National Hurricane Center said.
“The question doesn’t appear to be if (rapid intensification) continues, but rather how strong Lee will get, and how quickly will it get there,” forecasters wrote on Thursday.
The hurricane jumped from Category 2 strength to Category 4 strength by late Thursday afternoon, with winds of 130 mph. Its top wind speeds are now predicted to reach 160 mph, just above the minimum threshold for a Category 5 hurricane at 157 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. That’s up from 155 mph earlier Thursday morning.
Lee will continue strengthening Thursday night. Current models “are calling for remarkable rates of intensification, beyond rates normally seen with model forecasts,” the center said.
Tropical storm Lee is “expected to rapidly intensify into an extremely dangerous hurricane by the weekend,” the National Hurricane Center says. Its wind speeds picked up on Tuesday afternoon and are now 45 mph with higher gusts. Veuer’s Maria Mercedes Galuppo has the story.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Margot formed over the eastern tropical Atlantic. The storm is forecast to turn north and is not currently a threat to South Florida.
Swells generated by Lee are expected to reach portions of the Lesser Antilles on Friday, and reach the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Bahamas and Bermuda this weekend, and could be potentially “life threatening,” the National Hurricane Center said.
There is “potential for tropical storm conditions to occur on some of these islands over the weekend,” the hurricane center said Thursday.
Though Lee’s path appears to be heading straight for South Florida, the region does not have to brace for a direct hit.
Lee is expected to turn north at some point over the next few days, Robert Molleda, a forecaster for the National Weather Service Miami, said at a briefing Thursday morning. Models are suggesting a turn Tuesday or Wednesday.
“Lee is not a threat to South Florida at this time,” Molleda said. “There’s no indication right now that Lee is going to continue to roll west-northwest without stopping all the way to Florida. Is that out of realm of possibility? No, but it’s not the likely.”
Officials have warned Floridians, amid peak hurricane season, to ensure their storm supplies are ready.
As of 5 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, Lee was 780 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, the eastern boundary of the Caribbean. Lee was moving west-northwest near 15 mph with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, a dramatic increase from 80 mph earlier that morning. Tropical-storm-force winds reached up to 140 miles from Lee’s center, and hurricane-force winds reached up to 30 miles out.
Lee is supposed to slow down as it continues west-northwestward.
Its forecast track shows the hurricane headed in the general direction of the Bahamas and potentially Florida. But it is too early to know exactly how close the system will get to the islands of the eastern Caribbean.