CNN
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Hurricane Lee grew larger on Tuesday and prompted a tropical storm watch for Bermuda as the hurricane’s potential impacts began to come into focus on the island and beyond.
Lee, A Category 3 National Hurricane Center Tuesday afternoon, it was centered about 535 miles south of Bermuda with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph. He said.
The storm has been increasing in size since the weekend and hurricane force winds now extend 125 miles from the center of Lee, according to a hurricane center update at 5 p.m. ET. Tropical storm force winds extended at 240 degrees miles from its center late Tuesday, having grown 55 miles in 12 hours.
Lee is expected to remain very strong through Tuesday night, but will lose some intensity Wednesday into Thursday as it moves over slightly cooler waters stirred up by Hurricane Franklin earlier this month.
But while Lee loses some strength this week, the hurricane will simultaneously continue to grow in size and will begin to move faster.
A larger storm can affect a more widespread area, even if its winds no longer reach Monster tornado Levels. So the larger Lee is likely to impact the East Coast – even if not by making direct landfall.
Tropical storm force winds could extend more than 300 miles from Lee’s center later this week, National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said at a storm briefing on Monday.
This means that potentially harmful wind gusts could still affect parts of the northeastern United States over the weekend, even if Lee’s center remains a few hundred miles from the coast, over the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical storm force wind gusts could reach parts of Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts Friday night when Lee’s center is expected to be about 250 miles to the southeast.
The exact timing and extent of Lee’s winds and rain in the United States and Canada could still fluctuate as uncertainty about its path remains. But the hurricane’s path could become more focused once it turns to the north on Wednesday.
Regardless of its final path, the storm will send large waves to a growing area of the East Coast throughout the week as it moves north. This will lead to coastal erosion, dangerous waves and overwhelming currents that threaten life on beaches.
Dangerous surf was already occurring along the southeastern coast of the United States from Florida through the Carolinas and on several of the country’s easternmost Caribbean islands, as well as the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda.
A high risk of rip currents was in effect through at least Wednesday night for coastal areas from Florida north to Massachusetts. The strong currents have already killed 71 people in the United States this year, initially National Weather Service data shows. Three people died in New Jersey due to rip currents that raged in the wake of Hurricane Franklin last week.
Lee is expected to turn north on Wednesday and increase its pace. The hurricane is scheduled to make its closest approach to Bermuda from Thursday to Friday and unleash strong winds and rain as well as dangerous waves and rip currents.
Late Tuesday morning, the Bermuda Weather Service issued a tropical storm warning for the island, meaning tropical storm conditions are possible there for the next 48 hours.
Tropical storm force winds are likely to blow across Bermuda Thursday morning into Friday as Lee passes west. Rain may also fall heavily at times during this period and may cause localized flooding.
The seas around the island will become dangerous with high waves as Lee approaches.
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