Hurricane Lee downgraded to Category 3 storm as US impacts nonetheless ‘too soon to know’: Live

Exactly when or how Lee will journey northeast remains to be too early to inform. What occurs subsequent is as much as a mixture of atmospheric components, together with an space of excessive stress within the Atlantic Ocean and a jet stream to its west.

That space of excessive stress is more likely to play a serious position in Lee’s monitor, and is predicted to maintain Lee on its present west-northwestward path over the weekend. That state of affairs would hold the storm rotating out to sea, or ship it nearer to Bermuda.

The storm remains to be roughly one week from posing a possible risk to the East Coast of the US, if it poses any in any respect.

Hurricane Lee, nonetheless a Category 3 storm, is predicted to move “pass well to the north of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico into early next week,” based on a day advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

Maximum sustained winds are close to 115 mph with greater gusts, and gradual “restrengthening” is feasible in the course of the subsequent couple of days, the middle predicts.

Swells generated by Lee are affecting parts of the Lesser Antilles and can unfold westward to the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, and Bermuda by means of the weekend. Those swells are “likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions,” based on the report.

“Dangerous surf and rip currents” are additionally anticipated alongside the US East Coast on Sunday and Monday after which worsen by means of the week.

Hurricane Lee was considerably disrupted by wind shear inside the 24 hours after it accelerated right into a Category 5 hurricane, because it then degraded right into a Category 4 then Category 3 into Saturday morning.

Models are suggesting that the shear will subside by Sunday morning, which might enable Lee to realize extra energy because it continues to trace east, based on Levi Cowan with Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

“Regardless of Lee’s exact intensity, it will be a major hurricane tracking north of the Caribbean and then turning northward over the western Atlantic over the next week,” he mentioned.

“It remains too soon to rule out impacts from Lee” as fashions predict it might monitor forwards Bermuda, Canada and the northeastern US, he added.

Hurricane Lee’s acceleration from an 80 mph Cat 1 to a Cat 5 with 160 mph winds inside 24 hours has surpassed the requirements meteorologists sometimes affiliate with “rapid intensification,” or when winds enhance by 35 mph inside that very same time interval.

It not solely makes Lee the fastest-intensifying Atlantic storm on file, it has set a brand new threshold that scientists see as a possible harbinger for what’s to come back because the local weather disaster accelerates.

“This one increased by 80 mph,” Marshall Shepherd, director of the University of Georgia’s Atmospheric Sciences Program and a previous president of the American Meteorological Society advised the Associated Press. “I can’t emphasize this enough – we used to have this metric of 35 mph, and here’s a storm that did twice that amount and we’re seeing that happen more frequently.”

Newly fashioned Tropical Storm Margot is predicted to develop right into a hurricane subsequent week, elevating the chance that Hurricane Lee’s path might be modified, although it’s nonetheless far too quickly to mission whether or not the 2 main storms might get shut to at least one one other within the Atlantic.

Such a phenomenon, when two storms rotate round one another and spin in the identical course, known as the Fujiwhara impact. The National Weather Service describes it as “an intense dance around their common center.”

That might then push them each across the Atlantic and alter their paths.

The phenomenon occured with hurricanes Hilary and Irwin within the East Pacific in 2017.

Lee marked the primary Category 5 hurricane of this yr’s Atlantic season when it quickly grew from a Category 1 inside 24 hours this week. There have been seven different Cat 5 storms from the Atlantic since 2016, with one – Michael – making landfall within the US in 2018.

Within thouse 24 hours, Hurricane Lee intensified from an 80 mph Cat 1 to a Cat 5 with 160 mph winds, probably making it the fastest-intensifying Atlantic storm on file.

Lee has since diminished to a Cat 3 storm and is predicted to take care of its energy over the weekend.

Hurricane Lee is “maintaing strength” as a not too long ago downgraded Category 3 storm because it strikes throughout the Atlanta Ocean with most sustained winds of 115 mph with greater gusts, based on the most recent advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

“Little change in strength is expected today, but gradual restrengthening is forecast to occur on Sunday and Monday,” based on the advisory.

For the primary time on file, Category 5 storms have fashioned in each tropical ocean basin inside one yr.

Lee, which has since downgraded to a Category 3 because it tracks alongside open Atlantic Ocean, accelerated from Category 1 energy right into a Category 5 this week.

“I think it’s reasonable to hypothesize that the abnormally warm ocean temperatures around the world made this more likely to happen,” University of Miami, hurricane professional Brian McNoldy advised The Washington Post. “Gives everything a boost.”

Hurricane Lee ramped as much as a Category 5 storm inside 24 hours this week, however it has been downgraded to a Category 3 and can probably lose energy over the course of the day because it struggles with wind shear.

The National Hurricane Center continues to emphasize it’s nonetheless “way too soon” to know what impacts, if any, the storm might have alongside the East Coast of the US, and the storm might acquire energy because it continues to maneuver with sustained winds at 115 mph as of Saturday morning.

Dangerous and life-threatening rip currents are affecting components of the Leeward Islands, based on NHC. Those situations are anticipated to impression components of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda over the weekend.

Some forecast fashions counsel that Hurricane Lee might graze the US East Coast – however the jury remains to be out.

“Regardless, dangerous surf and rip currents are expected along most of the US East Coast beginning Sunday,” the National Hurricane Center warned.