Tropical weather

The downpours and flooding blocked roads, floated vehicles and delayed the Florida Panthers on their way to Stanley Cup games in Canada against the Edmonton Oilers.

At least 36 people are still missing as aid slowly continues to flow into the region. Otis rapidly intensified to a Category 5 storm before crashing ashore last week.

A disturbance is likely to strengthen into a tropical storm when it's expected to hit North Carolina late Friday, forecasters said, posing flooding and other threats as far north as New Jersey.

A 51-year-old motorist in Searsport, Maine, died in the storm Saturday after a large tree limb fell on his vehicle.

As of early Tuesday afternoon, Lee was packing 115 mph winds and moving west-northwest at a virtual crawl of just 6 mph.

The powerful Category 3 storm is restrengthening as it moves northwest, but currently poses no immediate threat to people on land, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The southern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and neighboring Santa Catarina are reeling after a devastating cyclone killed 27 people and displaced thousands.

Named storms have formed in the Atlantic before the official June 1 start of hurricane season in each of the last six years. The National Hurricane Center is discussing starting the season in May.

Triad school districts had to close when the remnants of Florence affected the area in September, followed by another onslaught of tropical weather from Michael earlier this month. While

The last major hurricane, defined as Category 3 and stronger, to hit the mainland U.S. was Hurricane Wilma, which made landfall in Florida in 2005. Matthew could break that lucky streak.