Hurricane Lee’s path and timeline: Meteorologists mission when and the place the storm will hit

Hurricane Lee strengthened quickly Thursday and has developed into a serious Class 5 storm, the Nationwide Hurricane Heart mentioned. 

Lee  intensified quickly over the very heat waters of the Atlantic, rising from a tropical storm right into a Class 1 hurricane on Wednesday. By late Thursday night time, it had grown to Class 5, with most sustained winds of 160 mph.

Lee was forecast to proceed intensifying by way of Friday, and regardless of doable fluctuations in depth, it was “forecast to stay a strong main hurricane effectively into subsequent week,” the middle mentioned.

“Whilst we head into Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday it does weaken, that is excellent news because it heads in direction of the U.S.,” CBS Information senior climate and local weather producer David Parkinson mentioned Thursday night.

The place is Hurricane Lee heading?

Giant ocean swells generated by Lee are anticipated to achieve the Lesser Antilles by Friday, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Hispaniola by the weekend, the hurricane heart mentioned.

As of 11 p.m. ET on Thursday, Lee was about 705 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, and it was touring west-northwest at 14 mph over the Atlantic Ocean.   

The Leewards are a gaggle of islands the place the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean.  

Giant ocean swells generated by Lee are anticipated to achieve the Lesser Antilles by Friday, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Hispaniola by the weekend, the hurricane heart mentioned.

“These swells are more likely to trigger life-threatening surf and rip present circumstances,” the company reported. 

Nonetheless, Lee’s heart is forecast to move “effectively to the north” of these islands, the company added.   

There aren’t any coastal warnings or watches in impact presently, the hurricane heart mentioned.

The place will Hurricane Lee make landfall? 

Proper now, it is too early to say whether or not Hurricane Lee will make landfall, forecasters mentioned. 

Parkinson laid out a number of doable situations for Lee. One would contain a chilly entrance coming off the East Coast that would lure Lee and push it north towards the shoreline, bringing probably stormy climate to areas alongside the coast.

Nonetheless, if no chilly entrance have been to type, Parkinson defined that Lee would then probably keep out at sea for an extended interval till it have been to achieve Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. By that time, it could have considerably weakened.

Is Hurricane Lee going to hit Florida?

Hurricane Lee isn’t presently forecast to influence Florida, CBS Miami reported. CBS Miami chief meteorologist and hurricane specialist Ivan Cabrera Lee mentioned the storm system is anticipated to show to the north and away from the southeastern U.S. coast, however climate specialists will proceed to observe its progress and observe it intently.

Florida is recovering from Hurricane Idalia, which made landfall alongside the Gulf Coast final Wednesday and left a path of injury throughout the Huge Bend area — the realm the place the Florida peninsula meets the panhandle. The storm brought on extreme flooding in Florida and different states together with Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, earlier than shifting out to sea. A number of deaths have been attributed to the storm, and the monetary toll of the hurricane might attain $20 billion, CBS Information beforehand reported.

Hurricane Lee spaghetti fashions

Spaghetti climate fashions, or spaghetti plots, are laptop fashions displaying the doable paths a storm could take because it develops. These fashions do not predict the influence or when a storm could hit, in accordance with the Climate Channel, however deal with displaying which areas would possibly probably be in danger. 

Spaghetti fashions for Hurricane Lee principally present the storm touring over the ocean. Some paths would take the storm near the Leeward Islands, which embody the Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Saint Martin and Saint Kitts. 

A spaghetti mannequin for Lee created Wednesday morning, seen beneath, reveals most projected paths curving northward and remaining out over the open Atlantic, however a number of veer extra to the west for a possible influence within the islands or alongside the U.S. Mid-Atlantic or New England coast late subsequent week.

One other set was posted by The Climate Channel’s Jim Cantore, who wrote: “Some options into late subsequent week (proven beneath) are too near ignore. Some do not contact land. That is all frequent with one thing within the 7-10 day away vary.”  

Extra from CBS Information