Tropical Storm Lee has formed in the Atlantic Ocean and forecasters say it's expected to strengthen rapidly into a major hurricane by this weekend.
In its last advisory, the National Hurricane Center said Lee has winds of 45 mph and is moving toward the Leeward Islands. Forecasters are already using stark language about the storm and its prospects.
"It is becoming a question of when and not if rapid intensification occurs with Lee," the advisory noted. Winds are forecast to reach 145 mph which is a powerful Category 4 "major hurricane."
The center of Tropical Storm Lee formed between Western Africa and the Windward Islands. It was moving west-northwest at 16 mph Tuesday night, according to the hurricane center, and was located about 1,230 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. It has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
Lee was "expected to rapidly intensify into an extremely dangerous hurricane by the weekend," the hurricane center said. It was forecast to become a hurricane by Wednesday night, and a "major hurricane" by Friday.
Tropical Storm Lee is expected to move northwest during the coming days and eventually make it into the eastern reaches of the Caribbean Sea.
"Tropical Storm Lee (is) expected to rapidly intensify into an extremely dangerous hurricane by the weekend," the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday evening.
Lee is forecast to reach hurricane strength by early Thursday and major hurricane strength by Friday afternoon. By Saturday, winds could reach high-end Category 4 strength.
"The atmospheric and oceanic conditions appear extremely favorable for rapid intensification (RI) during the next several days," NHC forecasters said.
Beyond five days from now, things get a little more fuzzy in terms of nailing down details about then-Hurricane Lee, but most reliable computer model projections turn the storm north and then northeast, missing the mainland U.S., as a cold front sweeps across the East Coast and kicks the storm out to sea.
That storm made landfall Wednesday in Florida, where it razed homes and downed power poles. It then headed northeast, slamming Georgia, flooding many of South Carolina's beachfronts and sending seawater into the streets of downtown Charleston. In North Carolina, it poured more than 9 inches of rain on Whiteville, flooding downtown buildings.
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