Bermuda Says Goodbye to Hurricane Danielle
With the hurricane season’s strongest storm bearing down on the North Atlantic, residents of Bermuda are preparing to meet face to face with Danielle. The storm is expected to pass within 230 miles of the island, according to the Bermuda Weather Service, but tropical force winds of 39 miles per hour extend out to 205 miles. Hurricane force winds of 74 mph extend 60 miles from the storm’s center.
The biggest threat to the islands will be the waves, which are as high as 42 feet at the center. A storm watch was issued at 3:30 p.m. (EDT) on Saturday as the weather service warned of “large and dangerous surf conditions…expected in Bermuda during the next few days.” Models suggest Danielle will past to the east of Bermuda, then weaken as it continues to track north-west.
Prior to Danielle reaching category 4 status, hurricane Alex had been the season’s most powerful storm. He hit Mexico’s northeast coast with 105 mph winds in late June. Once on land, Alex fell apart quickly.
Although Danielle will lose much of her punch as she moves north, forecasters are warning she will still be a dangerous storm with winds near 69 mph. As she meets up with a low-pressure system near Greenland, what’s left of Danielle should be absorbed. The Azores will probably experience some slightly higher than normal winds as the storm passes through.
The U.S. mainland has been spared from this year’s hurricanes so far, due to a persistent low-pressure trough on the east coast. Whether or not that trough remains is anyone’s guess, but in all likelihood it won’t last much longer. Once it begins to break down the coastline will be a target for future storms.
Danielle appears during the anniversary week of Hurricane Katrina, which made its first landfall in Florida on August 25, 2005. After passing over the panhandle and heading into the Gulf of Mexico, Katrina strengthened considerably before making landfall a second time in Louisiana just four days later.
On average, ten tropical storms form in the Atlantic during a typical season, with six becoming hurricanes. Only two grow strong enough to be category 3 or greater. The U.S. Atlantic coast generally experiences the landfall of a serious hurricane three times within a five year period. The last major hurricane to hit the U.S. coast was Ike, which made landfall in Louisiana near the end of August, 2008.
