Hurricane Lee (2023)

Hurricane Lee was the strongest and deadliest hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The thirteenth named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Lee formed from a low pressure system moving towards the coast of Honduras. It was well organized and upgraded to Tropical Depression Thirteen on September 28. Just 18 hours later, Tropical Depression Thirteen became a hurricane, Hurricane Lee. Lee immediately made landfall in Honduras but moved back out into the Caribbean. After causing multiple floods, Lee reorganized and once again rapidly intensified. Now, Lee was a Category 2. The SSTs were lower than along the coast so Lee never reached Category 3. Lee underwent an eyewall replacement cycle before moving southwestward and weakening to a Tropical Storm as it made landfall in Costa Rica. Lee became a reamant low as it moved through Central America, bring terrible rains. Lee once again reorganized near Belize into a tropical storm. On October 8, Lee made its final landfall in Belize as a low-end tropical storm. Lee left behind millions of dollars of damages and killed 100+ people. Lee tied the record of fastest intensification from depression to hurricane. Its tied with Hurricane Blanche of 1969 and Hurricane Harvey of 1981.

Lee prompted multiple countries in the Central America to issue warnings and watches, including a Hurricane Watches and Warnings which is not typically issued for this area. The storm weakened faster than expected and Lee weakened to a tropical storm before landfall, which caused the governments of multiple countries drop the hurricane advisories. Lee caused flash flooding and landslides across Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Several schools to closed; approximately 3 million lost power across the area.

Retirement
The World Meteorological Organization retired the name Lee from its rotating name lists, due to the extensive amount of damage and loss of life it caused along its path, especially in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras, and it will never again be used to name an Atlantic hurricane. It will be replaced with Louis for the 2033 Atlantic hurricane season.