Tropical Storm Danny Continues to Strengthen; May Become a Hurricane Later This Week

August 18,2015

• Tropical Storm Danny was located about about 1,505 miles east of the Windward Islands in the eastern Atlantic Ocean as of 11 p.m. EDT Tuesday.
• Maximum sustained winds were 50 MPH with higher gusts.
• The tropical storm is forecast to steadily strengthen as it moves slowly to the west-northwest. Danny is forecast to become a hurricane later this week.
• Given this slow movement, it may be a week or so before this system reaches the longitude of the Lesser Antilles and eastern Caribbean Sea.

Projected Path

Satellite imagery shows that Tropical Storm Danny is organizing better over time. In fact, the National Hurricane Center says that Danny could become a hurricane by Thursday. This is the first active named storm in the Atlantic since the final advisory was written for Claudette on July 14, a time span of more than a month.

Storm Stats and Satellite

Model Forecast Tracks

At the moment, winds aloft in the area near the depression are not too strong and the environment is somewhat moist. Therefore, it is forecast to continue to strengthening.
(MORE: Track Danny in Real-Time With Our New Interactive Storm Tracker)
The movement of this system will be very slow to the west-northwest the next few days. Computer model forecast guidance shows that it may not reach the longitude near the eastern Caribbean Sea (about 60 degrees West longitude) until about a week from now.
As a result, we have plenty of time to monitor its progress. Dry air and unfavorable upper winds have dominated the Atlantic so far this month, so it's possible that this system eventually weakens once it reaches the vicinity of the eastern Caribbean Islands. In summary, it's far too early to know if this system will bring any significant impacts to those islands in the long-term future.
(MORE: Satellite Maps)
Stay tuned to The Weather Channel and check back with weather.com for updates on this system.

(MORE: Heart of the Hurricane Season is Here)

Senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen contributed to this report.

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