Margot Remains at Sea as a ‘Fish Storm’ Among Lee and Invest 97L

FPREN HQ- The National Hurricane Center issued an advisory on Hurricane Lee, located several hundred miles off the coast of Bermuda and on Hurricane Margot, located over the central Atlantic.

While Lee is projected to make landfall somewhere between Maine and the Eastern Canadian provinces this weekend, Margot is expected to remain over water, not posing a major threat to any land. As of Wednesday afternoon, Margot is moving north-northwest with 90 mph winds as a Category 1 hurricane. The intensity is expected to fluctuate slightly over the next several days.

Margot is considered a fish storm, a term used by meteorologists to refer to a storm that generally poses no risk to land. These storms can still affect shipping routes and boats, prompting the National Weather Service to issue reports concerning these systems.

As the name suggests, fish storms do influence marine ecosystems. According to NOAA, hurricanes can destroy coral reefs, mix up the water column, redistribute sediments on the seabed and increase pollution through runoff.

Hurricanes can also force fish to relocate to deeper water, disrupting biodiversity. Fish storms occasionally produce rip currents and other tropical storm-like conditions for land.

Margot is expected to bring swells and dangerous surf and rip current conditions to the Azores on Wednesday. Margot is one of two active tropical cyclones in the Atlantic. Lee stands as a Category 2 hurricane as of Wednesday afternoon.

Lee’s impacts will likely extend hazards well away from its center, bringing ocean swells, dangerous rip currents and waves up to 4 to 6 feet.

The National Hurricane Center is tracking Invest 97L in the Atlantic Basin. The disturbance has a 70% chance of developing in the next 48 hours. Gradual development is expected as the system moves west-northwestward to northwestward at 10 to 15 mph. A tropical depression is likely to form over the weekend in the Atlantic.