Hurricane Lee takes a northerly direction before targeting the Canadian state of Maine – AccuWeather.com/en/

AccuWeather meteorologists are very confident that Hurricane Lee will make landfall along the coast from central Maine to New Brunswick and possibly hit the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia this weekend.

The major hurricane was making a critical northward turn over the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday as AccuWeather meteorologists recommended completing preparations for the storm’s arrival by Friday from eastern New England into New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ahead of Lee’s strong winds, heavy rains and flooding. Coastal flooding this weekend.

Lee is big and lumbering to pick up forward speed

As of Wednesday afternoon, Lee was a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. Lee was located less than 380 miles southwest of Bermuda and was moving to the north-northwest at 10 mph. Lee will gain forward speed as it faces stiffer steering breezes on Thursday and Friday.

Lee had a very large tropical system with hurricane-force winds extending outward 115 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extending outward as much as 240 miles on Wednesday.

Me to track maine or new brunswick

A path to eastern New England has long been within AccuWeather’s range of possibilities for Lee. The weather team stressed the risk of drifting westward with Lee’s track for several days, while at the same time it appeared quite clear for Lee’s winds and rain to the south from New Jersey to Florida.

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But even if Lee’s eye remains east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the sprawling storm will bring dangerous and devastating conditions to much of eastern New England as well as the Maritime Provinces of Canada as it moves northwest.

What to expect from lee in new england, canada offshore

Winds will increase, seas will build, and coastal flooding or storm surge problems will spread northwestward into eastern New England and offshore Canada this weekend. Power outages and tree damage possible. Some roads will be closed due to high water, trees and other debris and dangerous washouts.

“The worst conditions will occur on Cape Cod late Friday night and Saturday, with Lee tracking more than 100 miles to the east later Saturday morning,” said AccuWeather hurricane expert Dan Kotlowski.

“It will produce strong northerly winds in Cape Cod Bay and all coastal areas near and along the Massachusetts coast will experience impacts like those of the strong nor’easter,” Kotlowski added.

As Hurricane Lee moves into gradually cooler waters along the northeastern U.S. and Canadian Atlantic coast late this week and weekend, it will slowly lose its core wind intensity. On the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, hurricane intensity will likely drop to a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 74-95 mph during this time.

“By the time Lee makes landfall, it may not officially become a Category 1 hurricane, but that doesn’t mean the risks will subside right away,” Kotlowski said. “As more intense winds decline, the wind and rain field will expand significantly outward.”

Lee is expected to rank No. 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ hurricane scale for impacts in the U.S. and Canada due to the extent of wind damage, power outages, storm-induced flooding, coastal erosion, freshwater flooding, and disruption to commerce and transportation. Expected travel in the area.

This gradual break-up, or transition into a tropical rainstorm, will likely occur around the time of or shortly after landfall, which is expected to occur late Saturday night, possibly near the Maine-New Brunswick border. It should be noted that Sandy underwent a similar transition before hitting the mid-Atlantic states with devastating consequences in the fall of 2012. However, while the impacts from Lee will bring significant risks to life and property, they should not bring the same scope of damage. . What Superstorm Sandy did.

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High tide cycles during midnight Friday and midday Saturday may be some of the most problematic from eastern Massachusetts to southern Maine.

Further north, it will push a large volume of Atlantic water into the Bay of Fundy, where astronomical tides are among the greatest in the world—up to 50 feet or more—and the marine scene is extremely complex. The Bay of Fundy is a body of water located between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in Canada, and also reaches the coast of Maine.

As Lee makes landfall, the symmetrical shape of the rain area will change and shift to the north and west of the storm center. This forecast change is common as tropical storms and hurricanes transition into rainstorms.

Since Lee is likely to gain forward speed, widespread “feet of rain” are unlikely. However, because some areas have received rounds of heavy rain in recent days, the ground is saturated. Despite the increase in forward speed, Lee will not move as quickly as some tropical systems have done in the past. Enough rain will fall to cause flash flooding in small streams and cause water levels in some major non-tidal rivers from Maine to the eastern towns of Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to rise due to the extent of the runoff.

Widespread rainfall of 2 to 4 inches is expected with pockets of 4 to 8 inches of rain and an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 9 inches is likely in eastern and northern Maine to western New Brunswick.

The strongest wind gusts will be near the center, south and east of the storm.

The winds will be strong enough to cause widespread power outages in eastern Massachusetts and coastal areas of New Hampshire, Maine and New Brunswick as well as much of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. More scattered power outages are possible in inland areas such as central New England and northern Maine.

Wind speeds could reach between 60 and 80 mph across a wide area extending from central and coastal Maine eastward across much of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island into much of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Winds of 80 to 90 mph with an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 100 mph are likely near the Bay of Fundy on Nova Scotia’s south coast.

Lee’s impact on the shores of the United States and Bermuda

In the days before Hurricane Lee makes landfall, offshore seas and surf zone waves will continue to build along much of the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Not only will wave action lead to incidents of beach erosion and minor coastal flooding at times of high tide, but the risk of dangerous and life-threatening rip currents will always be present.

As Hurricane Lee passed 100 miles or more west of Bermuda Thursday into Friday night, impacts to the islands were rated as “less than 1” on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ hurricane scale.

Persistent tropical storm force winds will likely be accompanied by some heavy rain and dangerous surf due to Hurricane Lee’s large size. But with Bermuda’s high level of building codes, most problems will stem from disruptions to travel and daily activities.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Hurricane Margot is unlikely to impact land. However, the emerging tropical system that may later be named Nigel is worth tracking for interests in Bermuda, the United States and Canada, where it could become the next hurricane and even a major hurricane. The U.S. East Coast could be open to impacts, according to AccuWeather forecasters.

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