Powerful Hurricane Lee churns through the Atlantic during the peak of the hurricane season

Here in Michiana, mid-September means cooler temperatures, but in the Atlantic Ocean things are heating up. This weekend marked the official peak of the hurricane season. 

We’re a little over halfway through the alphabet for hurricane names, right on schedule for the time of year that we see the most tropical activity on average in the Atlantic Ocean. It is also very fitting that we’re seeing yet another historic hurricane just a few weeks after Hurricane Idalia.

Hurricane Lee strengthened from a tropical storm into a category 5 hurricane in just 24 hours. The storm was strongest Friday morning with sustained winds up to 165 mph, an 85 mph jump from 24 hours before. There have been only 2 other storms in the Atlantic Basin that have strengthened as quickly as Lee - Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Hurricane Felix in 2007.

Over the weekend, Lee weakened to a category 2 hurricane yesterday after moving into a less favorable environment. It has since grown into a category 3 hurricane again and will strengthen into a category 4 hurricane later today. 

Hurricane Lee is expected to curve to the north mid-week, spaghetti models have been fairly steady in suggesting landfall near Canada’s Atlantic provinces. Although the East Coast won’t see the eye wall, they will see high surf and strong rip currents as a result of this storm.