San Juan Puerto Rico –
Hurricane Lee began turning away from the northern Caribbean on Wednesday and headed toward Canada’s Atlantic coast, leaving large waves in its wake.
The Category 3 storm was 695 kilometers (430 miles) south-southwest of Bermuda in the morning. It has sustained winds of up to 185 kilometers per hour (115 miles per hour) and is moving north-northwest at a speed of 9 km/h (6 mph).
Lee is expected to pass west of Bermuda, prompting a tropical storm warning for the islands. Forecasters warned of wind and heavy rain in the archipelago starting Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.
Forecasters call for Lee to continue north and lose strength as it moves through cooler waters before possibly making landfall over the weekend in Nova Scotia, Canada, perhaps as a tropical storm.
“Slow weakening is expected over the next few days, however, Lee is likely to remain a large and dangerous storm through the weekend,” according to the National Hurricane Center. “Lee’s expected post-tropical transition will not reduce the potential wind, rain and coastal flooding impacts of New England and Atlantic Canada due to the system’s broad winds.”
The storm’s strong winds reached 185 kilometers (115 miles) from the storm’s center, while tropical storm-force winds reached 390 km (240 miles), the center said.
Forecasters warned of dangerous currents in the Lesser Antilles, British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Turks and Caicos Islands, Bahamas, Bermuda and parts of the southeast coast of the United States. Conditions are expected to reach the east coast of the United States and the Atlantic coast of Canada in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Margot was moving over the open Atlantic ocean on Wednesday. It is located 1,270 km (790 miles) west-southwest of the Azores, with maximum sustained winds of 140 km/h (85 mph). It is moving north at 19 km/h (12 mph) and is expected to stay offshore.
Margot is the 13th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 and reached its peak on Sunday.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that there will be between 14 and 21 hurricanes this year, of which between 6 and 11 will become hurricanes. Of these, it is estimated that two to five will be category 3 or higher storms.
