Lee has become a major category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 mph and further strengthening is expected. Winds are forecasted to peak near 165 mph within 24 hours. The core will track well north of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Dangerous surf and life-threatening rip tides are likely along the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola through the weekend. Early next week, these dangerous surf conditions will begin to affect most of the U.S East Coast. Lee will begin to turn towards the north sometime early next week and it’s too soon to tell where it will track once it makes the turn. All interests from NC to Nova Scotia should monitor the progress of Lee as some modeling shows Lee could get within a few hundred miles of the coast. It will be several more days before anyone has a good idea on the final track.

Sign up for Hurricane Tracker App Premium graphics to get higher resolution tracking maps with more detail, wind probabilities, and wind swath graphics. Updated every 6 hours with NHC data for storms that threaten land. More information here. Here are the premium graphics for Lee from the 5 PM EDT NHC advisory.