A newly classified tropical depression located midway between Africa and South America is set to become the season’s next major hurricane, organizing and intensifying markedly in the coming days as it churns west toward the Bahamas and Caribbean. As it draws closer to North America, its path is highly uncertain.
But forecasters are unusually confident that the storm will become extremely intense — raising the stakes of the track forecast. The National Hurricane Center predicts the depression will quickly become a tropical storm by Tuesday evening, earning the name Lee, before explosively strengthening into a Category 4 hurricane by Saturday.
Naturally, the concern arises for any possible effects on land. Current projections suggest the storm could come perilously close to the northern Leeward Islands — the island chain that divides the Atlantic and Caribbean — before it turns northward out to sea.
