Tropical Storm Danny Could Become Hurricane Later This Week

An area of thundershowers that rolled off the African continent just a few days ago is now a named tropical cyclone. Yesterday morning this area of disturbed weather was designated as at tropical depression. Just a few hours later satellite reconnaissance confirmed that tropical depression four had become organized enough to be upgraded to tropical storm status. That tropical storm was given the name Danny.

According to the latest reports from the National Hurricane Center Danny remains in a favorable environment for slow strengthening. It's true that this is an El Nino year in the tropics and normally there would be an abundance of strong upper level winds that would shear the top right off any tropical system in the Atlantic but Danny has arrived during a time of weakness in that atmospheric condition.

The latest track models show the system continuing a slow west northwest push across the Tropical Atlantic. On the present track the system could be threatening to the Windward and Leeward Islands by early next week. Forecasters are still uncertain as to  the ultimate track of the system.

Whether it will move across the islands into the Caribbean Sea and eventually the Gulf of Mexico or if it will move slightly more north toward the Atlantic coast of the United States has yet to be determined. Many of the more reliable tracking models have shown a northerly bias to the track this morning. If that is the case Danny would be more of a threat to the East Coast than the Gulf Coast.