The exact track of Hurricane Lee isn't clear yet, but the likelihood of rain and wind from the system in the northeastern U.S. and Nova Scotia is significant.
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00:00 In the Atlantic, the hurricane hunters captured this stunning video of lightning last night inside the hurricane eye of Lee.
00:07 Really incredible stuff. The stadium effect could be seen here.
00:10 AccuWeather was the first to issue any forecast for Lee 24 hours before the National Hurricane Center and any other source.
00:17 And our goal is to always help you keep safe and provide the most advanced notice so you can make the best decisions for you and your family.
00:23 Michelle McLeod is joining us now with the latest on Hurricane Lee.
00:26 Michelle, how's the storm doing? A little different than last night and early this morning.
00:29 Very well defined this morning, even into this afternoon.
00:32 But I mean, look, you can see it on the radar, Jeff.
00:35 Well defined. It starts to close and it's like, is it going to lose intensity?
00:40 No. I mean, I'll show you the track in just a minute.
00:42 But right now the winds are at 150 miles an hour.
00:45 You're west northwest at 13 miles an hour.
00:47 So when we're looking ahead and we're thinking, is this going to meander?
00:52 Is that is or is the intensity going to transition lower?
00:56 No. And here's why. I mean, you've got warm water, little to no little to no wind shear and then a lot of moisture.
01:06 So you'll see this being consistently a category four storm.
01:10 Now, the direct impacts are going to be the northern portions of the Lesser Antilles.
01:15 You're seeing a one out of five in the AccuWeather Risk to Property and Lives Index.
01:20 Now, the main threats are going to be rain, wind and flooding.
01:23 When you turn your attention a little something different, we're going to head a little farther north.
01:26 Let's do it. When it comes to the coastal regions of the eastern seaboard, mainly the south and even Puerto Rico,
01:33 I'm showing you the surf zone fatalities for this year because you're seeing a lot of it.
01:38 The majority of it is from rip currents.
01:40 And the reason I'm showing you this is because Lee is going to have an impact on those rip currents.
01:46 This is from Sunday into Thursday.
01:48 Now, you have the potential for life threatening rip currents, rough surf and coastal flooding.
01:54 Right. Again, from this weekend until after midweek next week.
01:59 Now, we were talking about the path of this storm, right?
02:03 We always talk about that cone of uncertainty.
02:04 Now, there's two scenarios with this storm.
02:07 If the Bermuda High weakens and you've got this weak but fast moving trough, Lee is going to be steered east of the US.
02:15 That's scenario one.
02:16 Scenario two is if the high strengthens or stays the way it is, then you've got a strong but slower moving trough.
02:23 You can see Lee is going to make its way and have impacts, at least impacts with wind and rain over the eastern seaboard from North Carolina all the way into the Canadian Maritimes.
02:34 So with what we know now, this is what things are looking like percentage wise.
02:39 You got the zero to 20 in yellow.
02:42 And then as the colors go to purple, you've got a higher percentage chance of seeing wind and rain impacts from Lee next week.
02:50 I just had a friend call me a few hours ago and she's like, I'm going to New York City.
02:54 What is it going to look like next week, next weekend?
02:56 Right. Well, here's New York City.
02:58 You're looking at a 20 to 40 percent chance of wind and rain impacts of Lee into next week.
03:04 Right now, we have the path going out until Friday, which is two days after any other source has projected.
03:10 But then we're also looking at the impacts until late next week.
03:15 Jeff. All right.
03:16 Thank you very much for that, Michelle.