According to the NHC, Lorenzo has become "the strongest hurricane this far North and East in the Atlantic basin" in recorded history.
A special advisory has been issued for Hurricane Lorenzo, as the maximum sustained winds have increased to near 145 mph. #Lorenzo pic.twitter.com/ogQEeNT8qx
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 29, 2019
The NHC warned earlier that "Lorenzo is a large hurricane [...] and its tropical-storm-force wind fields are expected to expand further during the next several days [...] Large swells generated by Lorenzo will continue to spread across much of the western and northern parts of the Atlantic basin during the next few days. These swells will produce life-threatening surf and rip currents".
Zooming out— here’s a look at how large #Lorenzo is. About 700 miles wide in the cloud shield, with TS winds in 300-400 miles of that. There’s no hurricane on record that strong and large there- looks more like a WPac super typhoon pic.twitter.com/p9zOk7n1Ks
— Eric Blake 🌀 (@EricBlake12) September 26, 2019
Earlier in September, Hurricane Dorian devastated the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco, where dowzens were killed and an estimated 70,000 people were left homeless in the aftermath.