 Relentless wind shear caused Leslie to weaken to slightly to a 60 mph ( 95 km / h ) tropical storm , despite sea surface temperatures ( SSTs ) exceeding 84 ° F ( 29 ° C ) . Early on September 3 , the storm decelerated and curved northwestward , while approaching a weakness in Bermuda high pressure ridge . Eventually , Leslie turned to a more northerly motion . A blocking pattern over Atlantic Canada caused the storm to drift at forward speeds under 5 mph ( 8 @.@ 0 km / h ) for four days . Wind shear also decreased , allowing Leslie to re @-@ organize and strengthen into a hurricane at 1200 UTC on September 5 . Six hours later , Leslie attained its maximum sustained wind speed of 80 mph ( 130 km / h ) . However , the slow movement of the storm caused upwelling – a process by which warm SSTs are replaced with colder waters . As a result , Leslie slowly began to weaken and fell to tropical storm intensity by early on September 8 . Despite weakening , the storm 's circulation expanded to a radius of more than 1 @,@ 150 miles ( 1 @,@ 850 km ) ; the wind field also expanded , with tropical storm force winds reaching about 175 miles ( 282 km ) in diameter from the center . 
