Hurricane Lee Strengthens, Predicted To Be 'Monster' Category 5

Yesterday morning, the National Hurricane Center said that Tropical Storm Lee is expected to rapidly intensify into an “extremely dangerous” hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean by this weekend as it heads towards Florida.

As predicted, Tropical Storm Lee turned into a Hurricane yesterday afternoon, and is currently a Category 2 as of 11:00 a.m. EST.

Now, as the storm continues to strengthen, the National Hurricane Center is predicting Lee to turn into a "monster" Category 5.

According to Click Orlando, as of 11 a.m. EST, Lee is now a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 105 mph, with the latest update predicting it to strengthen into a powerful Category 5 hurricane. "Lee is expected to continue to rapidly strengthen over the weekend," they reported. "The official forecast from the National Hurricane Center is a Category 5 hurricane passing northeast of the Caribbean Islands by the start of the weekend."

Thursday morning, satellites show two vertical hot towers, which are intense thunderstorms, rotating around the center of circulation, which ClickOrlando states is a "textbook sign that rapid intensification is underway".

The good news for Floridians, who are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia, is that models continue to show the storm continuing well east of the state.

Last week, Hurricane Idalia hit the Category 4 stage before it made landfall into Florida as a strong Category 3 with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph. Despite the strong winds and heavy rain, Florida state officials only counted one Florida death due to the hurricane, which was a traffic fatality in Alachua County.

“Four events in six years tends to bring it to the forefront of the conversation,” said Angie Lindsey, coordinator of the Florida Extension Disaster Education Network at the University of Florida, per The Tampa Bay Times. “It’s so important to use these events as teaching tools so that we go back and tweak what we need to. What have we learned that we can apply for next time?”

Hurricane Idalia mainly hit the western part of the state, meaning Walt Disney World was not affected. The company kept the Parks open last week, although it was a ghost town as many people did not venture into Disney World in the rain and winds.

"DeSantis, state and local officials, first responders, and brave frontline workers prepared the state for this Category 4 hurricane and made sure Floridians were well-informed about the dangers posed by the storm, took appropriate safety precautions, and understood what resources were available to them in impacted areas," supply chain expert Robert Salvador told Fox News Digital.

As forecasters watch Hurricane Lee very closely, another tropical depression has formed. Tropical Depression 14 is predicted to move from the Cabo Verde Islands, and then become a hurricane in the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Luckily, this storm is not expected to impact Florida. The next named storm of the 2023 hurricane season is Margot. Hurricane season runs from June through November.