Satellite images this morning show a very healthy Hurricane Danielle with a well defined eye. That's the sign of a very strong hurricane, and indeed, Danielle strengthened into a category 4 hurricane early this morning. Fortunately, the storm is still on track to turn out to sea and will not be a threat to land.
Even though Danielle will be far off the North Carolina coast, swells from the storm will create dangerous rip currents at our beaches. Lifeguards will be very busy this weekend. The weather will be great at the beach this weekend, but if you're enjoying the nice beach weather, it will be best to stay out of the water.
Danielle is not the only storm to watch in the coming days. Earl remains a tropical storm but will likely become a hurricane over the weekend.
Earl will continue to move to the west for the next few days and is then forecast to take a more northwesterly turn early next week. While Earl may come closer to the Carolina coast than Danielle, most models still keep the storm offshore next week. However, I would caution that it is still too early to say with a lot of certainty that Earl will turn out to sea. Earl is still a storm to watch very closely.
Danielle and Earl may not be the only storms to track this weekend. A tropical wave off the coast of Africa remains disorganized this morning, but conditions are favorable for this disturbance to become a tropical depression or tropical storm this weekend. If it becomes a tropical storm, it will be named Fiona.
Tune in for our tropical updates at :21 after the hour for the latest.
Lee Ringer
News 14 Carolina Meteorologist
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