Hurricane Lee swirls north, prompts watches in New England

Hurricane Lee is now expected to pass perilously close to Maine and over the Canadian Maritimes this weekend, and its large circulation will swipe eastern Massachusetts on Friday night, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday.

Threat level: Overnight computer model runs, fed with data from hurricane hunter aircraft, depict the storm moving north-northeast and then hooking closer to the U.S. coast as it turns into a Nor'easter type storm this weekend.

The Hurricane Center issued tropical storm watches for coastal areas of Rhode Island, Massachusetts and parts of Maine, including...