Satellites are watching Hurricane Lee swirl above the Atlantic Ocean because it makes its way toward the Canadian coast for a Saturday (Sept. 16) landfall.
The storm, currently a Category 1 hurricane packing winds of 80 mph (130 km/h), will likely cause power outages, storm surge flooding and flash floods along the coast of Maine, Recent England, Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the following 24 to 48 hours, based on NOAA and AccuWeather. Fortunately, by the point Lee hits the coast, it can have weakened right into a post-tropical storm.
Hurricanes and their remnants don’t often make it as far north as Canada, but scientists think that the continued progression of climate change will make these destructive weather phenomena more common along the northeastern coast of the American continent.
Related: Hurricane Lee looks absolutely terrifying on this footage from inside its eye (video)
Last yr, Fiona, which peaked as a robust Category 4 Hurricane, reached the Atlantic coast of Canada as a post-tropical storm, causing wide-spread destruction. The truth is, the dimensions of the damage made Fiona the most costly storm in Canada’s history, based on CBC.
Lee is predicted to be somewhat milder, based on the WeatherNetwork. On the time of landfall, the storm will pack sustained winds of at 30 mph (50 km/h) with gusts as much as 50 mph (80 km/h). Fiona, then again, struck with sustained winds of 60 mph (100 km/h) and gusts as much as 87 mph (140 km/h).
Along with Lee, tropical storm Margot and tropical depression 15 currently hover above the Atlantic Ocean, but neither of those is predicted to pose any risk to inhabited areas.
The Atlantic season officially peaked earlier this week. But in August, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) increased its prediction of the intensity of this yr’s season from near-normal to above-normal levels.
NOAA updated the forecast resulting from the unexpectedly warm surface water temperatures which were reported across the Atlantic Ocean throughout this yr’s spring and summer season.