Tropical Storm Lee could become Category 5 hurricane – live updates

A new tropical storm has formed in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to intensify into an “extremely dangerous” hurricane by the weekend.

Tropical Storm Lee was announced by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) at 5pm (eastern time) on Tuesday.

Its wind speeds picked up yesterday afternoon and are now 50mph (85kph) with higher gusts.

Lee is forecast to become a hurricane within a couple of days and will likely become a major hurricane by Friday, NHC reported, as it heads towards the Carribean.

“The depression is forecast to become a major hurricane by this weekend and could bring impacts to the Leeward Islands by that time,” NHC reported.

The storm is currently about 1,300 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, moving west-northwest through the eastern Caribbean.

Preliminary forecasts are not predicting any landfall, although the centre warned that “it is too early to determine exactly how close this system will be to the Leeward Islands.”

Meteorologist Ryan Maue suggested on X, formerly Twitter, that Lee could become a “monstrous storm” in the Category 4 or 5 range but travel “safely north” of the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico.