FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Danielle formed Friday in the central Atlantic, and experts are watching another system near the Caribbean that could become a tropical depression overnight, according to the National Hurricane Center.
After emerging as Tropical Storm Danielle on Thursday, the system intensified overnight and became the first hurricane of the season Friday morning. It has little chance of affecting land.
As of 5 p.m. Eastern time Friday, Danielle was located about 895 miles west of the Azores with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph as it sits stationary. The system is now a Category 1 hurricane, the fourth named storm of the hurricane season, and the first in nearly two months.
Its hurricane-force winds extend out 15 miles with tropical-storm-force winds extending to 115 mph. It is expected to reach sustained wind speeds of 100 mph within two days, which would make it a Category 2 hurricane.
Deep in the mid-Atlantic, Danielle is no current threat to land and will meander over the Atlantic over the next few days, moving slowly west, the center’s update Friday evening said. Danielle will then move toward the northeast into the middle of next week.
Danielle is the first named storm to form in the Atlantic since early July, when Tropical Storm Colin formed offshore of the Carolinas. This comes after a quiet August with no named storms, something that happened for only the third time since 1961.
National Hurricane Center forecasters are monitoring one other system near the Caribbean.
That system is expected to move west-northwest at about 10 mph and will pass north of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Saturday night and Sunday, the hurricane center said in its 8 p.m. update.
Parts of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico can expect heavy rainfall over the next few days regardless of the system’s development.
It could develop overnight if the showers and thunderstorms the system is bringing continue throughout the evening, the center said in an 8 p.m. update. A hurricane hunter flew over the system, finding it had become better defined late Friday.
As of 8 p.m. Friday, National Hurricane Center forecasters said its odds of developing in the next two days rose to 80%, up from 60% Friday afternoon and 70% at 6 p.m. It also has an 80% chance of developing over the next five days.
The presence of wind shear near the Caribbean could be a hindrance to further development beyond a tropical depression, according to AccuWeather, the private forecasting service.
A third system forecasters were monitoring in the far eastern Atlantic near Africa dissipated by 8 p.m. Friday.
The next named storm to form will be Earl.
There have been three other named storms so far this season — Alex, Bonnie and Colin — with the last one, Colin, dissipating on July 3, meaning this 60-day streak is the second-longest time in Atlantic hurricane season history without a named storm since 1995.
Only Alex made its presence known in South Florida by dumping as much as 12 inches of rain in some areas.
“It looks like September could really kick off an active period in the tropics. A steady wave train of energy rolling off Africa into the tropical Atlantic is expected to keep things active for a while across the Atlantic basin,” said AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham.
The most active part of hurricane season is from mid-August to the end of October, with Sept. 10 the statistical peak of the season.
Forecasters say dry air, Saharan dust and wind shear have been among the reasons there haven’t been more storms this year.
Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.
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