Hurricane Lee strengthened to a Category 5 storm late Thursday night, forecasters said, and could present potentially dangerous beach conditions on the U.S. East Coast as early as this Sunday.
By early Friday morning, Lee had maximum sustained winds of 165 mph as it churned across the Atlantic Ocean, the National Hurricane Center said. Lee was traveling west-northwest across open water on a path that will likely see its center pass north of the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico, the National Hurricane Center said.
