Hurricane Lee is about to go over what AccuWeather's Bernie Rayno calls a "pristine location for development." What exactly does that mean for us?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hurricane Lee continues to strengthen in the Atlantic Ocean.
00:03 AccuWeather was the first source to issue any forecast for this storm 24 hours before
00:09 the National Hurricane Center and any other source.
00:12 And our goal is always to help you keep your family safe and provide detailed forecasts
00:17 so you can make the best decisions for you and those you care about.
00:20 With a closer look at what's fueling the storm, we now head to Bernie Rayno.
00:27 Well rapid intensification of Lee is underway.
00:30 Just take a look at the water vapor loop.
00:35 You can see the eye of the hurricane, number one.
00:38 And you'll notice that we don't have any dry air coming into the storm center.
00:41 We do have dry air off to the east and to the west, but it's being pushed away in both
00:47 directions.
00:48 So what this looks like, and you see this a lot with these hurricanes, they are creating
00:51 an own environment for them to survive and not only survive but thrive.
00:56 And that's what's going on right now with Lee.
00:59 And over the next 24 to 48 hours, Lee is going to be going over what I'm calling a pristine
01:04 location for development.
01:06 What do I mean by that?
01:07 Bath water.
01:08 Water temperatures between 86 and 90 degrees.
01:11 That's the warm water.
01:13 Then we're going to have sufficient moisture.
01:14 And here's the big thing.
01:16 Virtually no wind shear.
01:18 Winds light a lot.
01:19 So Lee is just going to explode.
01:20 And I promise you this, when you look at the satellite of this storm within the next 24
01:24 hours, it's going to be awe-inspiring but frightening with that center of the circulation
01:29 in the middle of the clouds.
01:30 And it's going to have what we call the stadium effect, where you look down into the hurricane
01:33 and it looks like you're looking down at a stadium.
01:37 That's what it's going to be like.
01:38 There's that category 5 status as we head toward later Saturday into Sunday morning.
01:45 Then it turning to the north.
01:46 Then the question is, how close can it come to the United States?
01:49 Now there's a couple of scenarios with this.
01:51 It all deals with this trough and its location mid to late next week.
01:55 If the trough is closer to the United States, the eastern coast of the United States, there's
01:58 a scenario where Lee is out between Bermuda and the United States and there's no direct
02:03 impacts in the United States.
02:05 That is possible.
02:06 But there's also a possibility that this trough is a little farther west, in which case Lee
02:10 comes closer to the United States.
02:12 Now we've already cleared southeastern North Carolina down across the east coast of Florida.
02:17 But right now, the outer banks of North Carolina to Nova Scotia, it's too early to clear you
02:24 from direct impacts.
02:26 - Great.
02:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]