Still producing hurricane-force winds, Lee has been downgraded to a post-tropical storm as it approaches Nova Scotia on Saturday morning.
The remnants of Hurricane Lee — now basically an extreme Nor’easter — are bearing down on coastal New England and Canada. But even though Lee is now post-tropical, the storm remains strong as it produces huge waves, life-threatening rip currents, strong winds and widespread rain to New England, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds remain near 80 mph with higher gusts at Lee’s center.
Lee is expected to be at or just below hurricane strength when it reaches Nova Scotia later today.
On the forecast track, the center of Lee will continue to approach the coast of Nova Scotia this morning. Lee is then expected to turn toward the north-northeast and northeast and move across Atlantic Canada tonight and Sunday.
By 10 p.m. tonight, rain will be northeast of America and completely in Atlantic Canada.
Winds will be simply “windy” down to “breezy” by Sunday morning with gusts of only 15-30 mph at 7 a.m. Sunday in New England.
For now, Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 390 miles from Lee’s center.
Swells generated by Lee are affecting the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the east coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Rip currents alerts are set to a high risk from New England all the way to Florida as the entire Atlantic coast of America will be seeing life-threatening rip currents today. Through tonight, Lee is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 1 to 4 inches over far eastern Massachusetts, eastern Maine, western Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.
Source: abc news
