Lee has strengthened into a hurricane as it moves over a record-warm Atlantic, with 75 mph sustained winds, according to a 5 p.m. EDT advisory from the National Hurricane Center.
The warm ocean waters are expected to fuel the storm to near Category-5 strength as it approaches the eastern Caribbean. Lee was located about 1,130 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, the center said. The storm had rapidly strengthened earlier Wednesday: Its sustained winds strengthened by 35 mph in the 24 hours after it formed as a tropical depression Tuesday morning.
“This storm definitely has the potential to be a Category 5,” Dunion said, adding that nothing in Lee’s forecast path is expected to hinder the storm’s development leading up to the weekend. The last Category 5 hurricane to roam the Atlantic basin was 2022’s Hurricane Ian. Before that, 2019’s Dorian and Lorenzo were the most recent hurricanes to achieve the feat. Only 39 Category 5 hurricanes have occurred since 1924, according to data from NOAA.
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