Tropical Storm Lee strengthened to a hurricane on Wednesday afternoon and is expected to build into an “extremely dangerous” storm by early Friday, forecasters warned.
Hurricane Lee is about 1130 miles (1815km) east of the northern Leeward Islands, according to the 5pm (eastern time) report from the National Hurricane Center, with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 kph).
Current projections show Hurricane Lee will not make landfall but pass north of the British Virgin Islands, which is still recovering from hurricanes Maria and Irma in September 2017.
Lee is the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.
In the Pacific, Jova strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane far off the southwest coast of Mexico and posed no threat to land. It was located some 600 miles south of Baja California and moving west-northwest at 13 mph with winds up to 105mph. It was expected to become a major hurricane by Wednesday night.
