After exploding from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm within 24 hours last week, Hurricane Lee has downgraded to a Category 3 storm, though forecasters predict the storm could regain strength as it whirls across the open Atlantic Ocean in the coming days.
Lee is “slowing down” as it moves well north of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the northern Leeward Islands, though it still remains too early to determine its course and whether the northeastern US coast and Canada could see any impacts, according to an advisory from the National Hurricane Center on 10 September.
But life-threatening surf and rip conditions are expected along the East Coast, while dangerous swells generated by the storm are spreading to the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, and Bermuda.
Lee’s historic intensification from an 80 mph Category 1 to a Category 5 with 160 mph winds last week makes it one the fastest-intensifying Atlantic storms on record. Warm waters are a potent fuel for hurricanes to gain strength, a phenomenon expected to accelerate amid a growing climate crisis.
