Tropical Storm Dennis Fighting... and More
06:14 AM EDT - 01 September 1999
Dennis was downgraded to a Tropical Storm overnight due to the fact it has hardly any convection around it, and the fact that it is almost a hybrid extratropical storm right now. It's in a very odd state because it's on the margins for both, and could reform into a Hurricane if it works down south more. Convection around the eye is not there, but it consistantly tries to form something on the north eye and the temperatures in the core are slightly warmer than the rest, so Dennis can not be declassified as Tropical System yet. It may teeter on this hybrid state for a while, and depending on where it meanders could reintensify. That will take a while, but Dennis seems to want to take a while. Models are all over the place, but tend to agree with a general slow West and West Southwest motion. A more southerly direction would cause it to go against the Gulf Stream, which would mean more warm water for it as it would be replinished faster.
It's hybrid ness is causing the windfield to expand as well, which makes being on the outer banks this week not so nice. It'll be around in one form or another through the weekend. The models that predict a more southerly motion bring it in towards the SC coast, and before anyone asks, returning to Florida looks extremely unlikely.
Otherwise, Cindy is now extratropical and going away. Two waves worth talking about. One in the Southeast Gulf of Mexico that may or may not do something in a few days, and the wave that we talked about yesterday, which is looking bad this morning. It probably won't even form now.
So currently, Dennis lingers around to be the only story at the moment.
For more information on Dennis see the Current Storm Spotlight for Dennis.
Some Forecast models:
(NGM, AVN, MRF, ECMWF, ETA)
DoD weather models (NOGAPS, AVN, MRF)
Weather Channel Caribbean Sat Image
Intellicast Caribbean IR Loop
Intellicast Atlantic IR Loop
More Sat images: [N.A. visible] (visible -- Daytime Only) [N.A. infrared] (infrared), and [N.A. water vapor] (water vapor)--Nasa source.
- [jc]