Saturday, June 23, 2012

Tropical Storm Debby Eyes Texas

The National Hurricane Center is forecasting Debby to make a turn northwest tomorrow and head due west towards southern Texas, confirming recent CMC/ECMWF model suspicions. Debby is forecast to remain a tropical storm throughout the next several days, but this forecast could change with time.
Tropical Storm Warnings are now in effect along the eastern half of the Louisiana coast, as Debby will likely incite a little flooding and windy conditions with outer rain bands swiping the area. The major cities at risk for effects from this storm include: New Orleans (LA) and Corpus Christi (TX), with Houston (TX) possibly also getting affected by this event.

Andrew

BREAKING: Tropical Storm Debby has Formed

Data from the hurricane hunters indicates that there are several reports of the system having tropical storm strength winds. Thus, Invest AL96 is now likely going to be classified as Tropical Storm Debby in the next NHC update.

Andrew

Invest 96 May Become Debby This Weekend in Gulf of Mexico

The National Hurricane Center, or NHC, has placed a system in the Gulf of Mexico at a 90% chance for tropical cyclone formation in the next 48 hours. Satellite imagery indicates clouds beginning to show signs of wrapping around a center, with outer cloud bands beginning to form in Georgia.
Considering that the strongest convection is located in the eastern part of the storm, with little or no convection on the western portion, we will need to have convection either bloom or significantly wrap around a central low pressure area to have the system develop a hurricane eye and strengthen properly as a tropical cyclone.

A glance at the tropical models suite reveals a very split decision, with some models hitting Florida, some hitting Texas, and some just wandering the system around the Gulf of Mexico. Looking individually at the models, the CMC has changed to hitting Louisiana, after hitting Texas for 4 consecutive runs. Whether this Louisiana scenario remains possible will have to be seen in the 12z model run. The ECMWF keeps consistent with a Texas/Mexico border hit, making that the 3rd consecutive time that scenario has been shown by the ECMWF.

I'm not willing to put in an opinion right now due to the volatility of the models right now, but will continue updating on the system.

Andrew