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Tropical Storm Danny Heads West, Expected to Strengthen to Hurricane

Forecasters say it's too early to gauge whether the storm will threaten the United States.
Image: Tropical Storm Danny is seen in the Atlantic Ocean in this image from the NOAA GOES-East satellite
Tropical Storm Danny in a satellite photo Wednesday.NOAA via Reuters
By Erin McClam

Tropical Storm Danny drifted west in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, and forecasters said it was still on track to become the first Atlantic hurricane of the season.

Forecasters said the storm would probably pose its first threat to land early next week: Antigua, Barbuda and the Virgin Islands on Monday, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic on Tuesday and Haiti and Cuba on Wednesday.

But it was too early to tell whether the storm would present a risk to the East Coast of the United States.

Late Wednesday morning, Danny was positioned about 1,400 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, and its winds were clocked at 50 mph. The National Hurricane Center said it could strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane by early Friday.

Tropical storm Danny.
Tropical storm Danny.weather.com
Erin McClam

Erin McClam is a senior writer for NBC News, responsible for reporting, writing and editing general news for NBCNews.com. Prior to joining the site in January 2013, McClam worked at The Associated Press, where he spent 13 years and was most recently financial markets editor. In that role, McClam was responsible for a team of five reporters and a deputy editor that covered the stock and bond markets, financial regulation and the nation's largest banks.

Prior to that role, McClam held a variety of jobs at AP, including being a national correspondent and an original member of its Top Stories Desk editing operation.

McClam lives in New York.