Hurricane Lee update today: Storm strengthens to hurricane and is expected to become ‘extremely dangerous’

The total private market insured losses from Hurricane Idalia, which struck Florida as a Category 3 storm last week, have been estimated between $3-$5 billion by Moody’s Analytics.

The risk modeling firm put the best estimate at $3.5bn for the insured losses associated with Idalia’s winds, storm surge, and flooding caused by heavy rains.

On top of this, Moody’s estimated around $500 million in losses to the National Flood Insurance Program – the US government initiative which provides affordable insurance to property owners.

Rescuers are hunting for two missing men after Storm Dana savaged Spain and killed three people.

Record rainfall caused heavy flooding in central Spain on Monday, shutting roads, subway lines and high-speed train connections.

Rescuers are still searching for a middle-aged man after his car was swept away by a river when he was travelling with his wife and children. An 83-year-old man was also swept away by the current.

While the Caribbean and the southeast coast of the US have their eyes on Hurricane Lee, another storm, Hurricane Jova has rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane in the eastern Pacific.

“That is one of the most rapid intensification rates ever observed in a hurricane. It may gain a little more intensity overnight,” wrote meteorologist Craig Ceecee.

Hurricane Lee currently is expected to pass near the northern Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico this weekend and then take a northward turn away from Florida, according to the projections.

However, the spaghetti models, that depicts various paths the storm could potentially take going forward, show a lot of uncertainty.

While National Hurricane Center has said it is too soon to predict whether Lee will make a direct landfall in Florida or not, it is getting more clear that the storm would definitely grow into an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 storm and could still potentially bring some impact to the US even if it doesn’t make a landfall.

The models shared by experts tracking the storm on Twitter show several scenarios where the hurricane could once again come very close to the US coast, even though there is a pretty reliable consensus that the storm will track northwest.

These maps, resembling long strands of pasta which gives it its name, show some potential paths that come towards Florida, while most go northwest.

However, what is worrying experts is that there is a lot of spread in potential paths of the hurricane beyond this weekend, which indicates uncertainty.

Lee, which intensified into a Category 1 hurricane from a tropical storm on Wednesday evening, is going to go through a more raping strengthening process starting on Thursday, experts warn.

The storm is feared to grow into an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 hurricane by Friday, due to warmer than usual waters in Atlantic.

“The rapid intensification is expected to begin tomorrow, and by the weekend, it should be a category 4 or 5 hurricane,” meteorologist Craig Ceecee wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“The track is good confidence through Monday, but beyond that, all bets are off. Too soon to think about US landfall possibilities.”

Hurricane Lee is expected to pass near the northern Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico this weekend. The Leeward Islands are a group of islands located where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean and include the US Virgin Islands.

Large ocean swells are expected to reach the Lesser Antilles by Friday, and then the US and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Bermuda and Hispaniola by the weekend, the hurricane center said.

Hurricane Lee was located about 1,130 miles (1,815km) east of the northern Leeward Islands late on Wednesday, according to the latest NHC update.

It had maximum sustained winds of 75mph (120 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 14mph (22kph).

The storm is expected to become a “major hurricane” by Friday, the NHC said, as the storm intensifies at a “steady to rapid” pace. It may become a Category 4 hurricane – a potentially “catastrophic” storm with sustained wind speeds of 130-156 mph – as it travels over very warm water.

Lee, which intensified into a hurricane on Wednesday evening, is likely to become a Category 5 “extremely dangerous” hurricane by Friday, a day earlier than previously anticipated, the latest update from National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The Miami-based centre warned that the large ocean swells will likely reach the Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico by the weekend.

Tropical Storm Lee was captured from space on Wednesday.

The vast system was seen moving through the Caribbean in imagery shared by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University. Lee was expected to gain hurricane status on Wednesday.