The latest outlook for Hurricane Lee as of 11 pm on Friday shows that while it is still a strong storm, it has weakened quite a bit from last night’s estimates of winds of 165 mph and is now down to 115 mph. This is due to the combination of increased wind shear and an eyewall replacement cycle. The forecast cone is now starting to show the northward turn predicted by the long range models, but keep in mind that the cone only shows where the center of the storm will be about 66 percent of the time. The current predictions are that Lee will continue to be a major hurricane through Wednesday but that it will turn north well before it hits the Southeast coast. Bermuda and Nova Scotia are both areas that it could make landfall, but the likely impacts in the Southeast are confined to high winds and strong rip currents along the East Coast based on the current forecasts. We want to continue to watch it, though, because the Southeast is not completely out of the clear yet, since Lee has a long way to go before it is safely past us. Margot, a storm to the east of Lee, is expected to move north and will not affect us. After that, it looks like we will return to quieter conditions in the tropics for at least a week while we watch the next wave just coming off of Africa.
