 As the cyclone moved northwestward along the southern periphery of the Azores High , it began a period of rapid deepening in which a " pinhole " eye became distinguishable on satellite imagery ; on this basis , Danielle was upgraded to a hurricane at 1200 UTC on August 25 . At the time , Danielle was a compact system , with tropical storm force winds spanning only 115 miles ( 185 km ) from the center . Although the NHC was fairly certain that the storm would continue west @-@ northwestward , a veer north or south of the forecast track seemed plausible due to the influence of an upper @-@ level low to the west @-@ northwest of Danielle . Nonetheless , the storm continued its west @-@ northwest track . At 0600 UTC on August 26 , Danielle attained its maximum sustained wind speed of 105 mph ( 165 km / h ) , one of four peak intensities . Although the eye became obscured and southeasterly vertical wind shear increased late on August 26 , the National Hurricane Center did not indicate weakening and instead predicted that Danielle would reach winds of 120 mph ( 195 km / h ) by late on August 27 . Early on August 27 , a United States Air Force reconnaissance aircraft flight reported surface winds of 80 mph ( 130 km / h ) , though post @-@ analysis indicates that the intensity of the storm was underestimated . 
