Tropical Storm Danielle now classified as hurricane
Hurricane Danielle’s location as of Friday night.
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(NewsNation) — Tropical Storm Danielle has amassed enough strength in the northern Atlantic Ocean to be classified a hurricane, the Atlantic’s first of 2022, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Late Friday night, the NHC was reporting Hurricane Danielle to be “nearly stationary” over the open Atlantic Ocean, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 75 mph. The storm is not considered a threat to land at this time.
Hurricane Danielle formed under odd circumstances, as unusually warm waters in the northern Atlantic allowed the storm to muster strength much further north than expected, according to the Washington Post. Danielle is also the latest first storm of the year to develop in the Atlantic since 2013, the WaPo said.
Water temperatures in the area Hurricane Danielle formed reached 80 degrees, “rivaling” water temperatures in the tropics for this time of year, according to a Tweet by hurricane expert Michael Lowry.
The National Hurricane Center tweeted Friday evening that if thunderstorms and heavy rainfall associated with Hurricane Danielle persist, it could revert back to a tropical storm “as early as tonight.”
The storm is centered about 885 miles west of the Azores and is moving west at 1 mph.