Hurricane Lee path tracker: Coastal New England under tropical storm watch ahead of storm’s expected landfall

Hurricane and tropical storm conditions are possible across portions of coastal New England and Atlantic Canada late Friday and Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest 5am advisory.

Storm surges and heavy rainfall is already battering Bermuda as the hurricane continues to move northward.

The storm was located about 370 miles (595 kilometres) south-southwest of Bermuda. It had winds of up to 105 miles per hour (165 kilometres per hour) and was moving north-northwest at 9mph (15kph).

Here are the key messages:

Rhode Island governor Dan McKee said on social media that the state’s emergency operations centre was activated and would be monitoring the fast-changing weather conditions over the next few days.

“The best thing you can do right now: Stay tuned for frequent updates,” Mr McKee said.

The outer bands of Hurricane Lee have started to lash Bermuda, with the Category 2 storm expected to make landfall on the coast of New England or Atlantic Canada over the weekend.

The storm was located about 370miles (595km) south-southwest of Bermuda. It had winds of up to 105mph (165kph) and was moving north-northwest at 9mph (15kph).

Lee was expected to pass just west of Bermuda, prompting forecasters to issue a tropical storm warning for the island.

“I cannot stress enough that we must all take this storm seriously,” David Burch, acting national security minister, said in a press conference.

Latest map from the National Hurricane Center shows Hurricane Lee swirling towards Bermuda after a northward turn.

The storm was located about 370 miles (595 kilometres) south-southwest of Bermuda. It had winds of up to 105mph (165kph) and was moving north-northwest at 9mph (15kph).

The storm is expected to impact New England as early as Friday.

Hurricane Lee’s winds could begin to buffet portions of New England as early as Friday as the storm’s centre is expected to pass close to the region’s southeast before barrelling near or over Maine and Atlantic Canada over the weekend as a “large and dangerous cyclone”, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Though the storm – now a Category 2 hurricane – is expected to weaken as it approaches, it will still have a massive radius of damaging winds that will be significantly felt along coastal New England and Canada’s Atlantic provinces.

“Hurricane conditions, heavy rainfall, and coastal flooding are possible in portions of eastern Maine on Saturday,” the National Hurricane Center said. The area is under a hurricane watch.

“Life-threatening” storm surge flooding could inundate parts of southeastern Massachusetts late Friday and Saturday, the agency said.

The National Hurricane Center has warned of tropical storm conditions in Bermuda ‘in a few hours’, in its latest advisory issued 2am ET.

The Hurricane could bring heavy rainfall and high tides to the island this morning, triggering localised flooding.

Here are the key messages from NHC:

Hurricane Lee barrelled north toward New England on Wednesday and threatened to unleash violent storms on the region just as Massachusetts and Rhode Island communities were dealing with tornado warnings and another day of heavy rain that opened up sinkholes and brought devastating flooding to several communities.

The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for portions of Maine. A tropical storm watch was issued for a large area of coastal New England from parts of Rhode Island to Stonington, Maine, including Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

The National Weather Service in Boston said that looking at radar data and videos it appears likely that a tornado toppled trees and knocked down power lines in Rhode Island and Connecticut on Wednesday.

Rob Megnia, a meteorologist with the weather service, said they received reports of about 20 trees down in Killingly, Connecticut, and trees and power lines down in Foster, Rhode Island.

The agency said it would survey the storm damage in both states on Thursday to help determine the tornado’s strength, maximum wind speed and its path.

Emergency sirens could be heard late Wednesday afternoon in parts of Providence, Rhode Island, as cellphones pinged with a tornado warning.

The 403rd Wing of the US Air Force Reserve Command, otherwise known as the “Hurricane Hunters”, shared a video of their aerial weather reconnaissance of Hurricane Lee this past weekend.

More heavy rain was in the forecast Wednesday in New England, where residents were cleaning up after downpours dropped nearly 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in six hours and flooded parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The rainfall was a “200-year event,” said Matthew Belk, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston.

Two communities declared a state of emergency and officials ordered evacuations out of concern for a dam listed in poor condition.

Rain from Hurricane Lee didn’t contribute to Monday’s flooding but could inundate parts of the coastal Northeast during the weekend, forecasters said.

Hurricane Lee is tearing across the Atlantic bringing strong winds and dangerous currents to parts of the Caribbean, before it is expected to pivot and travel up the US East Coast, potentially making landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada on Sunday.

The National Hurricane Center graphic below shows the probable path of Hurricane Lee. Areas under a hurricane warning are marked in red; hurricane watch in pink; tropical storm warning in blue; and tropical storm watch in yellow. The orange circle shows the current position of the cyclone’s center.

However NHC tropical cyclone forecast tracks have room for error, the agency notes.

This uncertainty is conveyed by the track forecast “cone” – the solid white and stippled white areas in the graphic.

The solid white area depicts the track forecast uncertainty for days 1-3 of the forecast.

The stippled area depicts the uncertainty on days 4-5.

The entire five-day path of the center of the tropical cyclone will remain within the cone about 60-70 per cent of the time, according to historical data.