The National Hurricane Center reports just after 8 am PST today that the “center of Hurricane Danny was located near latitude 14.0 North, longitude 48.2 West. Danny is moving toward the west-northwest near 10 miles per hour (17 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue through tonight”.
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Danny becomes the first hurricane in the Atlantic basin this year.
Tropical storm watches might be required Saturday for parts of the Leeward Islands, forecasters said. The storm’s likely interaction with the mountainous terrain of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola will be a key factor down the road, and that’s assuming the storm can fight off all the wind shear and dry air.
The Saffir-Simpson scale estimates potential property damage, with hurricanes reaching Category 3 and higher considered major hurricanes with a potential for significant loss of life and damage.
But even without strong winds, Danny could remain a threat to the bone-dry islands, particularly in places such as Haiti, where storms have repeatedly unleashed fatal mudslides.
Temperatures will get closer to 90 Saturday and with fewer storms and more sunshine Sunday, temperatures will once again push the mid-90s. Tropical storm watches could be issued in the area on Saturday. So, although the winds have strengthened, the hurricane will cover much less ground that a hurricane such as Bill from 2009.
Astronauts aboard the global Space Station captured an image of Hurricane Danny moving through the Central Atlantic Ocean.
Forecasters say Hurricane Danny is “notoriously hard to forecast” because of its unusually small size and the propensity to gain steam at a moment’s notice.
Still, forecasters warn that quieter-than-average years have seen some of the most destructive storms, such as Hurricane Andrew in 1992, a Category-5 storm that devastated southern Florida.
Storms of that level or higher are considered major systems.
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Based on the USVI Code, all businesses in the territory should have provided a mandated price list of goods and merchandise in stock at the beginning of the hurricane season, June 1, with additional lists due the first day of each month during the season. In 2012, hurricane-turned-cyclone Superstorm Sandy ravaged the Northeast with damaging flooding and powerful winds.
