How to stay safe from rip currents as Hurricane Lee churns in the Atlantic

AccuWeather

Do you know how to recognize rip currents in the ocean and what to do if you get caught in one? With Hurricane Lee causing them along much of the East Coast, now's the time to be sure.

Transcript

00:00 The entire east coast is under a major rip current threat from Hurricane Lee,

00:04 with Florida beaches already on high alert. As the week goes on, beachgoers in places like the

00:08 outer banks of North Carolina will need to watch out for life-threatening rip currents as well.

00:13 We recently spoke to AccuWeather regional expert Bob Smirbeck on how to spot a rip current,

00:19 which can hide behind the waves and trick beachgoers.

00:22 You just start watching the waves, the way they're breaking. You see the water all churned up,

00:27 where the waves are breaking, coming up onto the beach. But then there's this nice calm area

00:31 in between. The water's a little darker, it's a little calmer. You think, "Oh, that's a good

00:36 space to go in. Water's nice." But that could be where the rip current is. That's one of the

00:40 signatures of a rip current, is a calmer, darker area of water between churning waves coming up on

00:46 the beaches. Smirbeck says if you're trapped in a rip current, stay calm, don't panic, and swim

00:53 parallel to the shoreline to get out of the rip current. And always try to swim near a lifeguard

00:59 as well. That'll keep you even safer. To break the grip of the rip, yes, you swim parallel to

01:04 the shoreline. Just remember that. Okay, folks, we're going to be taking a closer look right now

01:08 at the RealView Enhanced GOES 16. And we want to mention that we've been talking about Hurricane

01:14 Lee. As it moves north, it's going to make its way up toward New England this weekend. And as it does

01:20 so, it's going to, the winds around its center are going to decrease a bit. Right now, they're

01:25 115 miles an hour. When it gets up near New England, they'll probably be closer to 65, 75

01:30 miles an hour. But the wind field is going to expand. And that's a little bit troublesome.

01:36 Because right now, the wind field, 500 miles across here, folks, this storm, we have winds of

01:45 tropical storm force. So if you look at it like the radius, it goes from the center of the storm

01:51 outwards 250 miles. That's how far out from the center of the storm we're getting tropical storm

01:57 winds, okay, 40 to 60 mile an hour gusts. We are expecting that in New England here, folks,

02:03 in eastern New England especially, moving forward. In places like Portsmouth, New Hampshire,

02:08 which is where this EarthKam is taking a live shot, right on that very small New

02:14 England, New Hampshire coastline of what is it, like 20 miles or something. But yes, it is

02:19 beautiful. This is a snapshot of Saturday morning. Okay, we're going to fast forward to the weekend

02:24 to see what impacts you're going to be expecting here, especially in eastern New England.

02:28 Saturday morning, we're expecting Lee to be either a category one hurricane, a tropical storm. It's

02:34 really immaterial what the designation is at that point. But it will be a powerful tropical cyclone

02:39 making its way probably a couple hundred miles east of Cape Cod, although it could be closer.

02:44 So we are expecting very windy conditions here, folks, this Saturday for much of the day. As a

02:50 matter of fact, if you look at the forecast for the college football game, BC against Florida State,

02:55 BC looking to play a spoiler in this one. This is on Saturday in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts,

03:00 just outside of Boston. Look at these winds, folks. The winds are going to be sustained at

03:05 20 to 25 miles an hour. The gusts will be higher and it will be raining. That is going to be very

03:11 interesting to watch that football game on Saturday as BC takes on Florida State. This is

03:17 Lee's eye path once again here, folks. And remember that cone there of uncertainty, if you will, as you

03:23 get further into time, the Saturday-Sunday time frame, it gets wider. So there is still a chance

03:28 for a landfall in Maine, especially, or even Cape Cod. So keep it in mind, folks, if you live in

03:34 those areas of eastern New England, especially, your threats as far as a direct impact are higher

03:40 than others.

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