It’s still busy out there in the Atlantic with two named storms and another area to watch near Africa. Here’s the latest in the tropics:
Hurricane Lee
Lee remains a major hurricane as it crawls slowly westward well north of the Caribbean. As of the 5 AM Monday advisory, Lee has 115mph winds, making it a category 3 storms. It is moving to the WNW at 7 mph.
Lee will continue its slow crawl to the northwest today, but will make a sharp turn to the north tomorrow — keeping the storm hundreds of miles to the east of Florida. It will weaken as it treks north, with the forecast calling for it to transition to a non-tropical low as it nears New England and Atlantic Canada this weekend.
While the winds will likely be below hurricane strength as it nears landfall, it will still be a powerful, impactful storm for the area. Tropical storm force winds will down trees and cause power outages, while heavy rain will likely lead to inland flooding. On the storms eastern side, onshore winds will bring the threat for coastal flooding and storm surge.
As of the latest update from the hurricane center, landfall would be possible from Cape Cod north to Halifax Saturday evening.
Hurricane Margot
Margot reached hurricane intensity Monday, and will continue to gain strength as it tracks northward in the central Atlantic this week. It will continue to move to the north, possible becoming Margot, thankfully, is no threat to land.
Other areas to watch
Another disturbance has emerged off the coast of Africa, and models are hinting that this could very well be the next named storm of the season. Development would likely be gradual with this, but by the weekend a tropical depression or tropical storm could form as it nears the Caribbean. The next name on the list would be Nigel. The NHC says there is a high chance this is able to develop into at least a tropical depression over the next 7 days.
This disturbance should follow a somewhat similar path to Lee, as it drifts to the WNW across the eastern Atlantic. Most models show development as the storm drifts north of the Caribbean by early next week. As one would expect with a storm that has yet to develop, there is high uncertainty in the long range forecast. For example, while both the American or GFS model and the European model show a storm developing next week — the models show the center of said storm some 500-1000 miles apart.
It’s still too far out to say who, if anyone, would see any impacts from this potential storm. We have a long time to watch this one before it comes anywhere close to land, and you know we’ll be watching it closely. Stick with ABC7 as we continue to track the tropics through the remainder of hurricane season.