Will Hurricane Lee Hit the US? Track, Path as Storm Rapidly Strengthens

Hurricane Lee is already a Category 1 storm forecast to become a "major hurricane" by Friday morning and could hit the United States next week.

Lee was traveling west-northwest at 13 miles per hour over the Atlantic as of approximately 5 a.m. ET Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. Its center was about 965 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, which include the U.S. Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Martin and St. Kitts. Lee should become at least a Category 4 hurricane by Saturday as it nears the Leeward Islands before getting close to Puerto Rico on Sunday.

The impact of this hurricane over the next four days is predicted to eclipse the power and scope of Hurricane Idalia. The latter was a Category 3 storm upon landfall that mostly affected Florida's Big Bend region on the state's Gulf-side coastline and caused severe flooding and temporary power outages.

Alex DaSilva, a meteorologist with AccuWeather, told Newsweek on Thursday that it is too early to tell whether Lee could directly affect the U.S. Based on the storm's path, projections are still about a week out.

"A lot can change in those seven or eight days, but for the next several days, we're pretty confident the storm is going to be strengthening fairly rapidly here," DaSilva said. "Looking at it on satellite right now, it really is beginning to get its act together.

DaSilva continued: "It wouldn't be surprising if this thing became a Category 3 later today. These things can ramp up really quickly and can strengthen very rapidly. So confidence is pretty high that it's going to take off quickly, and we should be dealing with a Category 4, Category 5 hurricane this weekend."

Swells generated by Lee are anticipated to reach portions of the Lesser Antilles on Friday, according to the NHC. Hispaniola, the Bahamas and Bermuda are also expected to bear the brunt of the impact, which is "likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions."

The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that Lee "is doing exactly what is it supposed to do intensity and movement wise." He added that there's "no question" that the storm is escalating to the upper end of the hurricane scale as the weekend progresses.

Global weather models continue to show a sharp north turn next week, meteorologist James Spann wrote on X, and Lee is expected to remain east of the U.S. East Coast.

"The hurricane will bring huge swells, waves, and a major rip current threat as it passes to the east," Spann said. "We note there is a chance that Lee will potentially make landfall over Nova Scotia, Canada in the September 15/16 time frame, but is way too early to know for sure."

So far, that view is shared by CBS Miami chief meteorologist and hurricane specialist Ivan Cabrera Lee, who said that based on the current trajectory Lee is expected to steer clear from Florida.

On X, meteorologist Reed Timmer warned New Englanders to not "let their guard down," saying that coastal flooding and dangerous riptides are expected "as this monster hurricane likely passes just offshore."

DaSilva said Hurricane Fiona, a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that reached speeds of 134 mph in September 2022, is a good example of how storms can move quickly and hit different parts of North America.

"Hurricane Fiona was a powerful hurricane that actually hit eastern Nova Scotia, and it brought gusty winds to eastern Canada because it was just so large of a system," he said. "So even if the system hits Atlantic Canada, you can still have direct impacts in Maine or northern New England. That's certainly on the table."

More Hurricanes Lead to Poorer Water Quality

Christine Angelini, director of the Center for Coastal Solutions at the University of Florida, studies the post-hurricane impacts on water quality.

She told Newsweek that immediately after hurricanes like Idalia and now Lee, coordinated regional efforts take place for weeks or months to assess changes to sediments, nutrient pollution, and sewage and industrial contaminants that can sit and build up over time. All this can harm humans and the environment, aside from the storm's direct impact.

"This is a multiple-month, after-the-event type of push to really understand the implications of the event for water quality," she said. "But there's certainly a lingering trail beyond that, by which longer-term processes can play out—such as interactions between nutrient loading and the persistence of harmful algae blooms, for instance, offshore."

The long-term effects of these weather events leave effects on the environment that will last much longer than the storms themselves.

In Florida, for example, more people now populate the Gulf Coast side than ever before, which causes additional concerns in terms of the water systems.

"What I think is most important in terms of the changes in sort of severity of these events and their implications has to do with the sheer number of people that are living in coastal areas that are exposed," Angelini said.

She went on: "We have higher population density now than ever before living in our coastal areas. That's more people making contact with coastal waters after these events, but they're also more people that are contributing basically potential pollutants to the landscape as well."

That means larger amounts of sewage that are in our septic systems, with the potential for combined sewer overflows during such events or more residential runoff. It can also directly affect humans in the form of serious health issues caused by bacteria and even the loss of limbs or death.

"That's a recipe for the amplification of the impacts of these events on water quality changes and then their effects on human health," Angelini said.