Danielle becomes first hurricane of 2022 Atlantic season; won't impact U.S.

TAMPA, Fla. - The Atlantic season finally has its first hurricane – and it will stay far away from the U.S.

Tropical Storm Danielle officially formed Thursday and was upgraded to hurricane status Friday by 11 a.m., according to the National Hurricane Center. 

Danielle’s forecast shows it meandering in the middle of the northern Atlantic for the next couple of days and won’t make an impact to the U.S.

"It could become a Category 2 hurricane over the weekend," says FOX 13’s meteorologist Dave Osterberg. "You can see it’s just literally going to work its way to the northeast. It’s literally in no man’s land. That’s fine. Keep it out there."

LINK: Track the tropics on MyFOXHurricane.com

Meanwhile, forecasters are monitoring another disturbance that is trying to develop into a named storm. It’s located east of the Leeward Islands.

"This is the little tropical wave that could. It’s just been trying and trying to develop," Osterberg explained. "It’s completely surrounded by dry air and trying to wall itself off."

Named storm or not, computer models show it dodging the east coast of the U.S. The next name on the list is Earl.

So far this hurricane season, there have been Tropical Storm Alex, Tropical Storm Bonnie, and Tropical Storm Colin – which formed in early July. None reached hurricane status. Tropical Storm Danielle formed on Sept. 1, ending the two-month streak since the last named storm this season.

This is the seventh time since 1950 that the Atlantic has gone through August without a hurricane. The other years were: 1967, 1984, 1988, 2001, 2002, and 2013.

It was just the third time on record that there were no named storms during the month of August. The other times that occurred were in 1961 and 1997.