Hurricane Lee update: Hurricane ‘restrengthening’ however path stays unclear as Margot nears hurricane standing

Hurricane Lee barrelled over open waters late evening simply northeast of the Caribbean, unleashing heavy swell on a number of islands because it regained some energy and expanded in measurement.

Lee has once more intensified to a Category 3 storm after lowering to Category 2 earlier on Saturday, however it isn’t forecast to make landfall and it’s staying over open waters. However, its bands introduced heavy rains and unsafe seaside situations.

The impacted areas embody the Lesser Antilles, the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda.

Late Sunday, it was centred about 310miles (500kilometres) north of the northern Leeward Islands. Its most sustained winds have been clocked at 120mph (195kph) and it was shifting northwest at 8mph (13kph).

“We had the perfection conditions for a hurricane: warm waters and hardly any wind shear,” stated Lee Ingles, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Juan.

Hurricane Lee is in uncommon firm. Only two recorded storms – Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Hurricane Felix in 2007 – strengthened sooner than Lee over a 24-hour interval, as Lee developed from a Cat 1 to a Cat 5 final week earlier than degrading into its present Cat 3 standing.

The storm is predicted to proceed to regain energy after slowing down over the weekend.

Brian McNoldy with the University of Miami advised NBC News that the nice and cozy situations within the Atlantic have been ripe for the storm’s speedy intensification final week.

The “vertical wind shear was very low and the water temperature under it was very warm,” he stated, including that Lee “took full advantage of both.”

Last 12 months, Hurricane Ian quickly intensified over two separate durations earlier than putting Florida. Hurricane Idalia not too long ago strengthened from a Cat 1 to a Cat 4 inside 24 hours.

“It’s a huge problem, and the past is not a good guide to what we should expect going forward,” Jeff Masters, a former hurricane scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, advised NBC.

Lee made historical past final week after it quickly intensified from a Category 1 to a Category 5 inside 24 hours.

The hurricane may enter one other interval of speedy intensification this week after slowing down over the weekend.

It seems that Hurricane Lee will seemingly keep away from making any landfall within the US, however life-threatening rip currents and harmful seashores situations alongside the East Coast are anticipated over the subsequent couple of days.

“Dangerous surf and rip currents are expected to begin along much of the US East Coast later today and worsen through this week,” in accordance with the National Hurricane Center.

Beach erosion and a few coastal flooding can also be doable, the middle reported.

The Category 3 storm is predicted to proceed gaining energy because it strikes north this week.

Hurricane Lee is anticipated to proceed to realize energy because it cruises throughout the Atlantic Ocean, and simply behind it’s Tropical Storm Margot, which forecasters predict will attain hurricane energy on 11 September.

It’s unclear what path they are going to take within the coming days, and whether or not they are going to pose a risk to the East Coast.

But they might get shut sufficient for a phenomenon known as the Fujiwhara impact, through which two storms rotate round one another and spin in the identical route. The National Weather Service describes it as “an intense dance around their common center.”

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

Just behind Hurricane Lee is Tropical Storm Margot, which has grown “stronger” and “better organized” over the weekend, in accordance with the National Hurricane Center.

Margot is anticipated to proceed shifting north within the subsequent few days and probably intensify right into a hurricane on Monday.

Maximum sustained winds have elevated to close 65 mph with increased gusts. Tropical storm-force winds lengthen outward as much as 80 miles from the storm’s middle, in accordance with the advisory.

As predicted, Hurricane Lee has intensified right into a Category 3 storm after slowing down in a single day and into Sunday.

Lee is anticipated to take a sluggish west-northwestward observe within the coming days, passing nicely north of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in the course of the subsequent day or two, in accordance with a Sunday afternoon advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

The storm has returned to Category 3 energy and “additional strengthening” is forcast throughout the subsequent day or so, the NHC is reporting.

There aren’t any coastal watches or warnings in impact, and it stays unclear whether or not the storm will attain the northeastern US coast and Canada or proceed spinning into the Atlantic on that western observe. It nonetheless stays too early to inform, in accordance with forecasters.

Take a take a look at the Atlantic exercise with Hurricane Lee, Tropical Storm Margot and two disturbances behind them with an opportunity of creating into storms within the coming days

The storms and storms-to-be are taking form in the course of the “peak” of the Atlantic hurricane season.

NOAA forecasts 12 to 17 whole named storms this 12 months, with 5 to 9 of these storms turning into hurricanes, together with as much as 4 main hurricanes with winds of 111 mph or increased.

Hurricane Lee was downgraded to a Category 2 on Sunday, slowing down because it rears northwest alongside the jap seaboard.

It’s anticipated to strengthen within the coming days, however Lee isn’t projected to strike land, and there aren’t any coastal watches or warnings in impact, for now.

“It remains too soon to know what level of impacts, if any, Lee might have along the US East Coast, Atlantic Canada or Bermuda late next week, especially since the hurricane is expected to slow down considerably over the southwestern Atlantic,” in accordance with the National Hurricane Center.

Dangerous surf situations are anticipated alongside elements of the East Coast and across the northern Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico in addition to Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.

But the storm, roughly 270 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands, is anticipated to steer away from Caribbean islands because it makes its northern flip.

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 improve by 35 mph inside that very same time interval.

It not solely makes Lee the one of many fastest-intensifying Atlantic storms on file, it has set a brand new threshold that scientists see as a possible harbinger for what’s to return 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.”