Tuesday Evening Update: Tropical Depression Lee formed this morning and quickly became a tropical storm by the evening. Winds are at 50mph and it is moving WNW at 16mph, out in the open Atlantic. Lee is forecasted to rapidly strengthen as it is in a favorable environment. Wind shear is low and water temperatures are hot. There is nothing stopping Lee from becoming a major hurricane. That will likely happen on Friday, and it should reach category 4 strength by Saturday. It is certainly possible it could become a category 5 hurricane next week.
As of now, Lee is expected to stay in the Atlantic, but will be close to the East Coast all of next week. There will be rough surf conditions for sure, and it is isn’t out of the question that an East Coast landfall could happen. It’s still very far out, so there’s a lot of uncertainty.
We will be keeping you updated on Lee all this week and next week.
