Westchester, Florida - Hurricane Lee is powering its way through the Atlantic and is forecast to intensify off the coast of Florida with winds just shy of a Category 5 hurricane.

As of early Thursday, Lee was still Category 1 with sustained winds of 80 miles per hour and higher gusts located east of the Caribbean's northern Leeward Islands.

Early next week, the dangerous surf could be threatening the US East Coast including Florida.

"Rapid intensification is expected to begin later today, and Lee is forecast to become a major hurricane by early Friday," forecasters said.

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It could become a Category 3 major hurricane then with winds of 115 mph but surge into Category 4 up to sustained winds of 155 mph and gusts of 190 mph by Saturday evening. That puts it 2 mph shy of Category 5 status.

The last Category 5 Atlantic hurricane was deadly Hurricane Ian in 2022. Before that were 2019's Lorenzo and Dorian, 2018's Michael, 2017's Maria and Irma, and 2016's Matthew.

The breadth of the storm as it intensifies could still affect the Leewards, US and British Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, the US National Hurricane Center said.

"Swells generated by Lee are expected to reach portions of the Lesser Antilles on Friday, and reach the British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Ric , Hispaniola, the Bahamas, and Bermuda this weekend," forecasters said. "These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions."

As far as its path beyond the NHC's forecast, computer models agree it will make a major turn to the north and likely avoid a US landfall.

It became the 12th named storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season on Tuesday, growing into the season's fourth hurricane on Wednesday.

Parts of Florida are still recovering from Hurricane Idalia that hit the Florida and southeast coast last week as an "extremely dangerous" storm with flooding, killing one person in Florida and one in Georgia.