New satellite footage shows the huge area being churned up across the Atlantic by Hurricane Lee, with tropical-storm-force winds extending out up to 345 miles from the eye.

Lee is a Category 1 storm as of Thursday night, heading north of Bermuda up the Atlantic Coast, but what is concerning meteorologists is the size of the storm rather than the wind speed.

Storm surge warnings of between one and three feet are in place for Long Island and New England. Heavy rain is expected on the Massachusetts Cape from Saturday onwards, although the Weather Channel reported huge waves could begin to strike the east coast as early as Friday.

'Coastal flooding accompanied by large and destructive waves from Hurricane #Lee is possible along the coasts of Long Island and New England,' wrote the Storm Surge Unit at the National Hurricane Center in their 5pm AST update on Thursday.

Lee is now forecast to make landfall as a tropical storm on Sunday in Canada, or perhaps the far eastern reach of Maine.