{"id":44885,"date":"2019-09-29T15:18:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T19:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=44885"},"modified":"2019-09-29T15:18:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T19:18:54","slug":"hurricane-lorenzo-reaches-cat-5-strength-dangerous-waves-sent-to-florida-east-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/09\/hurricane-lorenzo-reaches-cat-5-strength-dangerous-waves-sent-to-florida-east-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricane Lorenzo reaches Cat 5 strength, dangerous waves sent to Florida East Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hurricane Lorenzo became the second-largest hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic season behind Category 5 Hurricane Dorian overnight when the massive storm reached maximum sustained winds of 160 mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As of 5 a.m. Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said\nLorenzo had dropped back down to high-end Category 4 status with 155 mph\nsustained winds. Lorenzo now holds the title of largest hurricane ever for that\nregion of the Atlantic Ocean. It was located 1,360 miles southwest of the\nAzores islands moving north at 10 mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The storm grew quickly on Thursday reaching major hurricane\nstatus in the morning with 130 mph winds and intensifying throughout the day to\nreach what forecasters said would be its strongest intensity Thursday night\nhitting 145 mph sustained winds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It began to drop intensity Friday, dialing back to 140 mph\nat 11 a.m., then down to a Category 3 hurricane at 5 p.m. with 120 mph winds\nand even more overnight down to 115 mph winds on Saturday morning. As of 5\np.m., the NHC reported the storm had grown back to Category 4 status and even\nmore so by 8 p.m., back up to 145 mph and finally to Category 5 status after 10\np.m. in a special advisory. The wind field is massive with hurricane-force\nwinds extending out 50 miles and tropical-storm-force winds out 275 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lorenzo was the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2019\nAtlantic hurricane season and was the sixth such top-end hurricane to form in\nthe Atlantic Basin in a little less than three years, following Matthew, Irma,\nMaria, Michael and Dorian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while Lorenzo is more than 2,500 miles away from\nFlorida\u2019s east coast, but the massive hurricane is still set to send waves\nacross the Atlantic this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIncreasing onshore winds and wave chop, coupled with\nbuilding very long period swells from large and distant major Hurricane Lorenzo\nwill impact the surf zone from Sunday well into next week,\u201d said forecasters at\nthe National Weather Service in Melbourne. \u201cThis will result in increasingly\nhazardous seas and surf, as well as a high risk for life threatening rip\ncurrents once again for several days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example, in West Palm Beach, the National Weather\nService has issued a hazardous weather outlook, reporting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rip currents: There is a high risk of rip currents along the\nSoutheast Florida beaches. Swimming is not recommended. Heed the advise of the\nbeach patrol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coastal Flood: Sensitive and low-lying locations along the\nAtlantic coast may experience minor flooding near the times of high tide.\nExpect some water ponding on roadways and in parking lots. High tide is around\n9 to 10 local time in the morning and evening on the east coast today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar message extended north to Jacksonville where a\ncoastal flood statement was issued for Atlantic coastal counties, Intracoastal\nWaterways and the St. Johns River basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its projected path keeps it well away from the western\nAtlantic, set to turn to the northeast on Sunday. But the NHC said swells from\nLorenzo were already making their way to the coasts of South America and Lesser\nAntilles of the Caribbean, and expected to hit Bermuda, the Bahamas and the\neast coast of the U.S. as well as the Azores this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The path does make it a threat to the Azores this week,\nalthough forecasters said it will reduce in intensity and only be a Category 2\nhurricane with 105 mph winds by Tuesday and then down to a Category 1 hurricane\nor post-tropical hurricane with 80 mph winds on Wednesday when its path has it\nmoving across or near the eastern Atlantic islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite the expected decrease in intensity, the hurricane\nis not forecast to decrease in size, and in fact Lorenzo\u2019s hurricane-force wind\nfield could increase further by next week,\u201d said NHC hurricane specialist David\nZalinsky. \u201cBecause of that, users are urged to not focus on the exact intensity\nof Lorenzo since the cyclone will likely remain a powerful storm well into next\nweek.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hurricane is expected to bring 3 to 6 inches over much\nof the western Azores and 1 to 2 inches over the central Azores Tuesday and\nWednesday, the forecasters said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Karen dissipated on Friday,\ndropping to Tropical Depression Karen by 11 a.m. and then falling apart by 11\np.m. The hurricane center has ceased advisories on Karen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far away from the tropical system in the Atlantic is a\nhistoric storm in the northwest U.S. that is unleashing feet of snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories were\nstill in effect for parts of the northern Rockies, Cascades and Sierra early\nSunday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to AccuWeather:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A preliminary snowfall of 9.7 inches fell in Great Falls,\nMT, on Saturday, which beat the daily record of 6.1 inches set in 1954. This\nalso is the earliest date of a snowfall of 9.7 inches or greater, with the\nprevious earliest date being November 8, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Saturday afternoon local time, snowfall in Browning,\nMontana, nearly reached 2 feet, measuring 23 inches of total snowfall at 4:10\np.m. MDT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A total of 15 inches of snow was reported near Kiowa,\nMontana, while another report found that East Glacier Park, Montana, had\nreceived 21 inches of snow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hurricane Lorenzo became the second-largest hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic season behind Category 5 Hurricane Dorian overnight when the massive storm reached maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. As of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":44886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44885"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}