four depressions so far this year? uh, i'd go with maybe one. all of the others were too poorly defined or transient to illicit classification. but yeah, that thing that crossed haiti on may 23-24 was definitely a tropical cyclone in my book. the argument against i've heard people make usually involved 'well, you see there was this upper trough, and it was shearing the system during much of its lifetime and it only briefly had a classic tropical cyclone appearance, the rest of the time its convection was removed or the low level center was elongated'. but then i don't follow with the idea that association with an upper trough precludes something being tropical.. especially if it originates in the caribbean or isn't stuck on a frontal boundary.
the thing yesterday into today was probably a tropical depression. it was a closed low pressure of tropical origin over support threshhold waters.. that began to associate with a front today and sheared out just a few hours ago as the upper trough finally got hold of it. nhc didn't feel like classifying a weakling system in light of the fact that a similar one in may wasn't classified.. one that killed 3000 people. anyhow whenever gary padgetts analyses are updated we'll get a lowdown independent of and more inclusive than nhc's.
there's isn't a whole lot of potential for the other features out there. eastpac continues to fire off storms, so one would expect the atlantic to respond in kind. shouldn't before late in the week.
HF 2223z26july