Friday will mark twelve years since the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee brought historic flooding to the Twin Tiers. Now, there's another Storm named Lee in the Atlantic.

In September of 2011, the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee moved northeast, drenching a large portion of the eastern united states. Historic flooding impacted Pennsylvania, New York, and even Canada, claiming 18 lives and causing nearly 3 billion dollars in damages. The preceding landfall of Irene saturated the surrounding soil and swelled the headwaters of the Susquehanna river about a week prior.

Following around ten inches of rainfall locally caused by Lee, streets in communities like Owego, Sayre and Athens became inundated with floodwaters to the point where numerous homes were destroyed. WENY's own chief meteorologist, Joe Veres, witnessed the devastation firsthand: "We're talking water in the second floor of homes and once the water receded, it was just a terrible task of trying to clean everything out. The roads were just covered in mud and dust."

The World Meteorological Organization states that "If a cyclone is particularly deadly or costly, then its name is retired and replaced by another one." This begs the question of why Lee is still being used as a storm name despite its wrath.  Storms with a smaller economic impact and loss of life have had their names retired. At least one Atlantic hurricane name has been retired every year since 2015, none were tropical storms.

"I am kind of surprised that here we are dealing with another system named Lee," said Veres. "Usually when these devastating storms pass through the region, they get retired, but for whatever reason, not the case with Lee"

The WENY News First Warning Weather Team will continue to track the path of this Hurricane Lee as it moves through the Atlantic Ocean. Lee is forecasted to reach category four strength by the weekend. Current model guidance does NOT have it making landfall in the United States.