Hurricane Danny Upgraded to Category 3 Storm

The 2015 Hurricane Season may have kicked off to a slow start, but that’s changing as forecasters find themselves tracking one named storm and three disturbances in the Atlantic.

Hurricane Danny, the season’s first hurricane, remains the big news as it continues on a western course. The storm, National Hurricane Center forecasters say, had strengthened to become a Category 3 storm as of 2 p.m. Friday.

“Reports from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that Danny is now a Category 3 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale,” the hurricane center wrote on its Facebook page. “The maximum winds are estimated to be 115 mph with higher gusts.”

Forecasters do not expect Danny will intensify further as it makes its westward trek.

“Danny is moving into an area of unfavorable upper-level winds, and a weakening trend is expected to begin later today,” the service wrote.

As of Friday morning, Danny was located in the “central tropical Atlantic Ocean about a thousand miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands,” the hurricane center stated.

Danny is moving west-northwest around 10 mph and is expected to continue on a course that would put it over Puerto Rico by Tuesday.

Forecasters are also tracking three other disturbances in the Atlantic as of this time. The first is an area of low pressure south of Bermuda. This storm has a 60 percent chance of forming into a tropical cyclone in the next five days, forecasters say.

The second disturbance is a tropical wave located off the west coast of Africa. This storm has a 30 percent chance of formation over the next five days. The third tropical wave is anticipated to move off the west coast of Africa sometime early next week. The storm has only a 20 percent chance of forming in the next five days.

While none of the four storms currently under observation pose immediate threats to the United States, forecasters say they bear watching. Meanwhile, residents in the Tampa Bay area are looking at the chance for more rain as the weekend arrives. The forecast calls for a 60 percent chance of scattered storms on Saturday afternoon and a 30 percent chance on Sunday.

Check out your local Patch’s homepage for an extended forecast for your neighborhood.

Graphics courtesy of the National Hurricane Center

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 2:12 p.m. with the latest information from the National Hurricane Center