GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – According to the 5 p.m. advisory, Lee continues to remain as a category 4 storm and is forecasted to weaken to a category 3 by next Wednesday, with winds at 125 MPH, just north of the Leeward Islands and Caribbeans. As of the latest update from Lee, winds are at 150 MPH, with higher gusts at 185 MPH. It was moving at the NW at 13 MPH.
Since the strength is continuing to go down, it will remain a category 4 storm throughout the weekend and the start of next week.
As the rapid intensification continued earlier this week, it was quickly in a hurry to go from a category 1 to 5 within an 18 hour period, as it peaked out with winds at 165 mph and gusts up to 200 mph.
It will slow down north of the Leeward Islands briefly Sunday and Monday. Lee’s forward movement speed will pick back up again slowly as it starts to turn northward as the center passes north of Puerto Rico. Forecast trends and model agreement has been consistent on a quick northerly turn, putting the center of the system closer to Bermuda than to us.
There is a good chance Lee won’t make landfall until it reaches Bermuda, and if it misses the island nation, landfall may occur in Canada. The biggest factor determining what types of (if any) impacts we’ll see in the East will be the turn northward later next week. We’re not completely in the clear, however confidence is slowly growing the only impacts we’ll see are rough ocean conditions and high rip current risks at the tail end of next week.
As of the latest update from Tropical Storm Margot, it has winds up to 40 MPH, with gust up to 50 MPH, and is moving at the northwest at 17 MPH. As Margot is still a tropical storm, it is forecasted to become a Category 1 Hurricane as early as late Sunday and into Monday, and continue out to sea.
Use this time to prepare your hurricane kits if you haven’t done so yet this year, but this is not a time to panic or worry.
Stay with WITN and WITN.COM as we continue to track the remaining name storms this hurricane season.