Hurricane Lorenzo super big, sending dangerous waves to Florida

Hurricane Lorenzo is more than 2,500 miles away from Florida’s East Coast, but the massive Category 4 hurricane is still set to send waves across the Atlantic this weekend.

“Increasing onshore winds and wave chop, coupled with building very long period swells from large and distant major Hurricane Lorenzo will impact the surf zone from Sunday well into next week,” said forecasters at the National Weather Service in Melbourne. “This will result in increasingly hazardous seas and surf, as well as a high risk for life threatening rip currents once again for several days.”

Hurricane Lorenzo is the second largest hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic season behind Category 5 Hurricane Dorian.

As of 5 a.m., the National Hurricane Center said Lorenzo has sustained winds of 145 mph and was located 1,620 miles southwest of the Azores islands moving north-northwest at 14 mph.

The storm grew quickly on Thursday reaching Category 3 major hurricane status in the morning with 130 mph winds and intensifying throughout the day to reach what forecasters say will be its strongest as of 11 p.m. Thursday. The wind field is massive with hurricane-force winds extending out 45 miles and tropical-storm-force winds out 265 miles.

Its projected path keeps it well away from the western Atlantic, and its projected to turn to the north on Saturday and then to the northeast on Sunday. But the NHC said swells from Lorenzo were already making their way to the coasts of South America and will soon be threatening the islands in the Caribbean.

The path though does make it a threat to the Azores by early next week, although forecasters said it will reduce in intensity and only be a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds by late Tuesday or early Wednesday when its five-day path has it moving across or near the eastern Atlantic islands.

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