Hurricane Lee: Projected path, maps and hurricane tracker

Lee is forecast to quickly intensify to an extremely dangerous major hurricane

Hurricane Lee, now churning over the Atlantic Ocean, is forecast to rapidly intensify to an extremely dangerous major hurricane.

Lee, which strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Wednesday, is forecast to become a Category 5 hurricane with winds of 160 mph by Friday.

Lee is expected to move north of the Caribbean islands over the weekend, sparing them any direct impacts other than rough surf and rip currents.

By next week, the spaghetti models show the storm turning north before reaching Turks and Caicos. Bermuda may be in Lee's path.

Long-range models can change over the next week, but they currently show Lee moving parallel to the eastern United States coastline. If Lee stays on that course, the East Coast would be hit with large surf and rip currents by late next week.

It is too early to predict whether Lee will impact the U.S., but some models show the storm hitting the Maine/Canada border around Sept. 16. By that time, Lee will be weaker, and likely won't be a major hurricane.