Lee is now a dangerous Category 5 Hurricane, too early to predict exact impacts for Florida

In the latest update from the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Lee continues to strengthen, and is the first Category 5 storm of the 2023 Hurricane Season.

Hurricane Lee has strengthened to a dangerous and extremely powerful Category 5 Hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. and is expected to strengthen further overnight!

The National Hurricane Center say that the monster storm is located 705 miles east of the Leeward Islands and is moving west-northwest at 14 mph.

Over the weekend and into early next week, Lee is expected to move well north of the northern Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico causing dangerous surf and life-threatening rip currents.

These conditions will spread westward and northward, affecting Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas, and Bermuda through the weekend.

It is way too soon to know what level of impacts, if any, Lee might have along the U.S.

East Coast, particularly since the hurricane is expected to slow down considerably over the southwestern Atlantic. Regardless, dangerous surf and rip currents are expected along most of the U.S. East Coast beginning Sunday.

Computer model continue to show Lee taking a turn to the north early next week. But exactly when that turn occurs and how far west Lee will manage to track by then will play a huge role in how close it gets to the eat coast of Florida, with the National Hurricane Center advising Floridians to monitor updates to Lee's forecast during the next several days

Also Thursday, a tropical depression in the eastern Atlantic strengthened into Tropical Storm Margot, just a few hundred miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands.

Margot is forecast to become a hurricane over the weekend, but it is not expected to threaten any land areas.

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