The Overland Reintensification of Hurricane Danny (1997)

Hurricane Danny made landfall as a minimal category one hurricane over southern Alabama on 19 July 1997 and then quickly weakened to a tropical depression while drifting northeastward. Upon entering western North Carolina several days later, Danny began to reintensify and was upgraded to tropical storm intensity before exiting the coast of North Carolina around 1900 UTC 24 July. Before exiting the coastline, Danny not only produced tropical storm force winds and damaging flooding, but Danny also displayed a markedly improved radar and satellite signature typical of a strong tropical storm. This reintensification will be examined by analyzing both the available observations and representative high-resolution model simulations. Danny's reintensification was a complex process – the well-defined remnant vortex intensified through a combination of effects including vortex stretching in the lee of the Applachians and a synergistic interaction with an upper-tropospheric trough.