Hurricane Danny moving closer to the Caribbean

Hurricane Danny, now located at 13.0 North and 45.7 West,  has continued to intensify this afternoon and his maximum sustained winds are now at 80 mph, up 30 miles per hour from this morning.  Danny’s minimum central pressure has also fallen to 990 millibars, which is about a 1 millibar per hour drop in the pressure.  This rapid intensification has to do with Danny’s unusually small size, as pressure decreases in the center have a bigger impact over the smaller area.  This will also work in the other direction however, where any weakening will also happen quickly.  Despite his small size, Danny’s cloud layer is looking more organized this afternoon with a small eye having developed and convective outer bands beginning to form again.  Danny has been in an area of dry air which has inhibited his ability to intensify despite the weak shear and warm ocean temperatures.  Our tracking map and the Satellite Danny is below.

The air around Danny was more moist today, with 3 things playing a role in that.  1, the Tropical wave  behind Danny has caught up a little, which is causing the dry air behind Danny to entrain into that system instead of being sucked into a Danny.  There is another low pressure system developing near Bermuda, which will actually have to be watched for development as a tropical or sub-tropical system of it’s own over the next few days, that is pouring moisture into the area of dry air and another wave of tropical moisture is moving off the coast of Venezuela, which can be seen on the radar image above.  With all the moisture in the area, the air is not quite as dry as it had been yesterday.  This trend will not continue though as the air ahead of Danny is very dry and that, along with an increase in wind shear will cause Danny to weaken in the coming days as he approaches the Caribbean.

The Hurricane Hunters have moved out to begin their patrols of Danny and performed a training mission today moving from Florida over Puerto Rico.  Stay with us here at Firsthand Weather for further updates on Danny as information comes in.

Forecaster Robert Millette