CNN —
Hurricane Lee has strengthened into a major Category 5 storm, packing maximum sustained wind speeds of 160 mph as it spins over the Atlantic well east of the Caribbean, the National Hurricane Center said in an 11 p.m. ET advisory Thursday.
Lee, which was a Category 1 storm earlier Thursday, has been intensifying with exceptional speed in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean, doubling its wind speeds in the last 24 hours.
The hurricane was located about 700 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands, the hurricane center said in the 11 p.m. advisory.
