Disasters & Accidents

Powerful Hurricane Lee will pass far north of Lesser Antilles

Miami, Sep 8 (EFE).- The eye of “powerful” Category 4 Hurricane Lee will pass far north of the Lesser Antilles this weekend, generating dangerous storm surge and undertows until next week in the western Atlantic, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Friday.

Lee, which at one point reached category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, does not directly threaten any populated areas at the moment and is 805 kilometers (500.204 miles) east of the northern Lesser Antilles islands, the NHC said in its bulletin at 17:00 local time (21:00 GMT).

It has maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometers (149.1 miles) per hour and moves in a west-northwest direction at 20 kilometers per hour.

According to a probable track pattern, the center said it “will pass well north of the northern Leeward Islands (Lesser Antilles), the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico” this weekend and early next week.

Some fluctuations in intensity are expected over the next few days; however, the NHC warns that Lee will remain a powerful major-category hurricane through early next week.

Waves generated by Lee are expected to reach parts of the Lesser Antilles later today and to reach the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, and Bermuda this weekend.

Tropical Storm Margot, also located in Atlantic waters, is expected to strengthen over the next few days and become a hurricane early next week.

At 21:00 GMT today, its center was located about 1,135 kilometers west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour as it moved west-northwestward in the Atlantic.

The NHC reported that there are no watches or coastal warnings in effect for this system. EFE

emi/ar/ics

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