Rainfall this week in Maine could result in elevated flood danger this weekend as Hurricane Lee approaches the coast, weather forecasters say.
Hurricane Lee, currently a category three tropical cyclone with sustained winds of 115 mph, was west of the Bahamas on Tuesday morning but is projected to turn north toward
Maine and Nova Scotia over the next two days.
The storm is expected to weaken as it moves north and likely will be downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, but it would pose a danger to Maine with heavy rain and winds. The track of the storm is still uncertain, although rain is expected here no matter whether the storm makes landfall in Nova Scotia or farther west.
“It could be further east, but it could be further west,” Anne Strauser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Caribou, said Tuesday. “It is forecast to bring a lot of rain and probably strong winds.”
Maine already has gotten a lot of rain this summer. Rain in the early part of this week could inhibit the ability of the ground to soak up more water. In the Bangor area, rainfall in each of the past three months have been well above monthly averages since 2000, according to National Weather Service data.
More rain is expected for much of the coast on Wednesday and Thursday, ahead of Lee’s projected arrival over the weekend, according to NWS forecasts.
Jason Nappi, a meteorologist with News Center Maine, went on Twitter Tuesday morning to say that rain bands from Lee will likely “lash” southern Maine and southern New England.
“There are leaves on trees, we’ve got saturated soils,” Nappi said. “It’s been a rough summer here. This one could be a big power-outage maker for sure.”
Strauser emphasized that regardless of where the center of the storm makes landfall, it could have statewide effects. She said wind and rain driven by the storm are expected to arrive in Maine sometime late Saturday or early Sunday.
“There’s still uncertainty on how strong this storm might be,” she said. “It is expected to weaken as it moves north, but we don’t know how much it will weaken.”