After steadily strengthening into the season’s second hurricane on Monday afternoon, Hurricane Danielle encountered some difficulty on Tuesday, and weakened back down to a tropical storm. However, this was only temporary. Danielle had actually reached Category Two strength early on Tuesday with 100 mile per hour winds and a minimum pressure of 973 millibars, or 28.73 inches of Hg.

After six hours at tropical storm strength, Danielle was upgraded again to a Category One Hurricane on Tuesday night. By early Wednesday morning, Danielle strengthened a bit more to a strong Category One storm on the Saffir-Simpson Scale with winds of 85 miles per hour, and a minimum central pressure of 982 millibars, or 29.00 inches of Hg (Mercury). At the time, additional strengthening was forecast over the next 48 hours.

As of the 11 AM EDT Advisory from the National Hurricane Center, the hurricane had not changed much in strength or in forward motion. Hurricane Danielle was located approximately 710 miles East of the Leeward Islands, and moving to the West-Northwest at 17 miles per hour. Maximum sustained winds were still sustained at 85 miles per hour while the minimum central pressure remained at 982 millibars, or 29.00 inches of Hg. Keep in mind that these winds and pressure readings are estimates based on satellite data. No aircraft reconnaissance has been done yet since the storm is still quite far out in the Central Atlantic.

Hurricane force winds extend some 30 miles from the center of the circulation while tropical storm force winds extend some 140 miles. The forecast presently calls for a gradual turn to the Northwest with a decrease in forward speed is expected along with some slow strengthening over the next 48 hours. Currently, there are now watches and warnings in effect for this storm, but it could threaten Bermuda in the coming days. Danielle emerged as the six depression and fourth named storm of the season after coming off the West Coast of Africa as the best wave of the season to date.

Looking the latest visible and infared satellite imagery from the storm, you can see that the system has a wragged southwestern quadrant while there was good outflow from its northern and eastern quadrants. There is a good amount of convection as denoted by the oranges and reds. Danielle is yet to form a classic hurricane shape, but it is still developing. According to the latest discussion from the NHC, no eyewall had formed in the area of bands east of the center. It also indicated that Danielle was being affected by westerly winds created by a trough to the northwest of the system is creating a shear of 15 to 20 miles per hour.

Check Hurricaneville.com for the latest developments and analysis on Hurricane Danielle.