Satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Lee, right, off in the central tropical Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 6.The Associated Press
Hurricane Lee charged through warm Atlantic waters on Friday and threatened to unleash heavy swells across the northeast Caribbean. It became the season’s first Category 5 storm before weakening slightly.
Currently a Category 4 hurricane, it is not expected to make landfall, but meteorologists warned it would generate dangerous waves of up to 5 meters across the northern coast of Puerto Rico and other nearby islands. While Lee is on a path that would take it a couple hundred miles (kilometres) northeast of the Caribbean, tropical storm conditions are not forecast for the region.
“Although the hurricane is incredibly powerful, its wind field is not particularly large,” the National Hurricane Center said.
The hurricane was located about 910 kilometres east of the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 250 kilometres an hour and was moving west-northwest at 20 km/h.
“Fluctuations in intensity like what has occurred this morning are not uncommon in intense hurricanes,” the centre said.
Lee is expected to strengthen and reach winds of up to 290 km/h. Only seven Atlantic hurricanes have had winds of that magnitude since 1966, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. Among those was Hurricane Dorian, which pummelled the northern Bahamas in 2019 as a Category 5 storm, hovering over small islands for about two days.
The centre said dangerous surf and deadly rip currents would likely hit the northern Leeward Islands later Friday. They would spread to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and Bermuda over the weekend.
“We will see waves between 10 and 15 feet (3 and 5 meters), so we don’t want anyone on the beaches,” said Ernesto Morales with the National Weather Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The National Hurricane Center said dangerous surf and rip currents were forecast for most of the U.S. East Coast starting Sunday, but that it did not have further details of what else the storm might unleash.
“It is way too soon to know what level of impacts, if any, Lee might have along the U.S. East Coast, Atlantic Canada or Bermuda late next week,” the centre said.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday was given the hurricane’s latest trajectory and details of preparations under way by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. About 4.5 million meals and nearly 8.9 million litres of water are available in Puerto Rico, and another roughly 250,000 meals and more than 600,000 litres of water in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the agency said Friday.
FEMA said it has also deployed rapid response teams to both U.S. territories as a precaution.
Lee is the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 and peaks in September.
Tropical Storm Margot became the 13th named storm after forming on Thursday evening. It was located about 580 miles (930 kilometres) west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands. It had winds of up to 65 km/h and was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane over the weekend. It was moving west-northwest at 28 km/h and is expected to remain over open water.
The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration in August forecasted between 14 and 21 named storms this season, with six to 11 of them expected to become hurricanes, and of those, two to five possibly developing into major hurricanes.
In the Pacific, Hurricane Jova churned through open waters far from Mexico’s southwest coast and posed no threat to land.
It was located about 1,220 kilometres west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, and was moving west-northwest at 26 km/h with winds up to 155 km/h.