The Amount of Mis-Information Regarding Hurricane Lee is Astounding

The Headline Below is From 9:55pm EDT Friday

This headline is pure garbage, unless you define "soon" as 9+ days and the virtual impossibility of a Cat 5 striking Maine or the Maritimes. I've never seen anything like this!

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As I wrote Monday, the amount of misinformation pertaining to Hurricane Lee is the worst I have ever seen, and that includes Hurricane Sandy. I suspect it is because of Tropical Storm Hilary affecting Southern California and Idalia* affecting Florida and the Southeast in rapid succession. With a Cat 4 (it has weakened from being a Cat 5 last night) in the Atlantic, interest was certain to be high. Why the misinformation? I don't know.

I'm hardly the only meteorologist experiencing this. 

Here is the latest forecast (5pm EDT Friday) of the path of the eye from the National Hurricane Center. This forecast is for five days into the future. 7:25pm update, it is still a Cat 4 storm. 

Please remember:  M = major hurricane ( ≥Cat 3), H = hurricane. 

Note the last position is slightly north of the previous straight path. That is the beginning of the predicted turn to the north. There is some possibility the storm will affect New England and the Canadian Maritimes after it makes the turn. 

Via Tomer Berg, this is a graphic showing the possible long-range outlook for Lee. Note that Maine is barely included. 

Our policy is to begin comprehensive hurricane coverage about 5 days in advance of landfall. If it looks like land will be affected by Lee and we will do so. I'm making an exception today strictly because of the hype. 

In the meantime, please use this blog or the National Hurricane Center to keep up on the storm and try to disregard all of the garbage on social media. Suggest to your friends and relatives they do the same. 

* I suspect when the final tally is complete, probably in the first quarter of 2024, Idalia will be rated as a Cat 2, and maybe, only a Cat 1 at landfall.