Danielle is already the first hurricane of 2022 in the Atlantic

Miami, United States
The first hurricane of 2022 in the Atlantic formed Friday from tropical storm Danielle but poses no danger, according to data from the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The closest territory to Danielle is the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores Islands, from which it is 885 miles (1,425 km) away.

Danielle is moving slowly westward at about 1 mile per hour (2 km/h), and its maximum sustained winds have increased to about 75 miles per hour (120 km/h), which may strengthen over the next few days.

According to the NHC, Danielle will meander over the open ocean for the next two days, then slowly turn to the northeast early next week.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 15 miles (30 km) from the center, and central and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 115 miles (185 km).

Danielle’s origin is in Depression Five, which formed on the first day of September, following a rare storm- and hurricane-free August, which had not occurred for 25 years.

The first three months of the six-month season (June, July, and August) have seen the formation of tropical storms Alex, Bonnie, and Colin.

Danielle came to break the tranquility prevailing in the Atlantic since early July.

The private weather forecasting company Accuweather noted that since 1960 there have only been three August months without cyclonic activity. The previous ones were in 1961 and 1997.

The NHC is also monitoring two areas of low pressure in the Atlantic.

One is located east of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean and has a 50 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression as it slowly moves west-northwestward toward adjacent waters north of the Leeward Islands, between the U.S. and the British Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

On the other hand, a tropical wave accompanied by a broad area of low pressure, located just off the west coast of Africa, has a low probability (10%) of becoming a tropical or subtropical depression.