NEW YORK — Hurricane Lee, currently churning about in the Atlantic Ocean, has become a behemoth of a storm.
After being named a tropical storm on Wednesday, Lee underwent an extremely rapid intensification process and morphed into a monstrous Category 5 hurricane by Thursday night.
Lee went from having winds of 80 mph to having winds of 160 mph in just 24 hours, joining an infamous group of past hurricanes that have intensified 80 mph or more within a 24-hour period. That list includes Wilma (2005), Felix (2007), Ike (2008), Matthew (2016), Maria (2017), and Eta (2020). All of these storms were devastating, and had their names retired.
Lee is also the eighth Category 5 storm since 2016. Category 5 storms traditionally have been a rarity, however, with ocean water temperatures becoming increasingly warmer in recent years, they are transpiring more often. Record warm sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic this year most certainly have contributed to Lee’s explosive development.
With peak winds of 165 mph as of Friday morning, Lee is the strongest storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season thus far. Though not the strongest ever recorded, Lee can now be included among the strongest hurricanes ever observed in the Atlantic Basin.
Only 29 storms are known to have reached Category 5 status, having maximum sustained winds of 156 mph or greater. The strongest hurricane ever recorded across the Atlantic was Hurricane Allen of 1980. Allen’s peak winds clocked in at 190 mph.
The Saffir-Simpson Scale, which measures hurricane intensity, only has five categories. This comes as a surprise to some, with many people thinking there is a Category 6 or greater. If the trend of stronger storms continues, which is expected, perhaps there will be a Category 6 one day – right now, Category 5 is as powerful as storms get.
Lee remains dangerous even if it “misses” us
After quickly reaching Category 5 intensity just 36 hours ago, Lee weakened to a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 mph on Saturday morning. Despite the exceptionally warm ocean, it has been struggling with wind shear. Lee remains a major hurricane and, while fluctuations in intensity will likely continue over the next few days, the overall thinking has not changed much. Effects at our local beaches will be felt either way, including high surf, dangerous rip currents, and some beach erosion as we get into next week. Wave heights could reach between 9 and 12 feet.
