Finally another Atlantic storm? · 2:52pm Aug 20th, 2019
Been a very slow tropical season, but I see a swirl of thunderstorms in the Atlantic which looks like it should be declared a storm any time now. The odd thing is that it's very far north for a storm to form, about the latitude of New Jersey, normally where storms begin to fizzle out as the hit colder water. It's probably right over the Gulf Stream, which is fueling it. I suspect it only has a short window to keep going, as it's chugging along at a brisk pace and once it moves further north and east, the water will become too cool.
EDIT: Ha ha! It became Chantal at 11 PM last night. As expected, it's likely to remain very small and weak and fall apart within the next 3 days. I compared its location to sea surface temperatures. It formed right over a small gyro of warmer Gulf Stream water and is roughly moving in the same direction. It won't be affecting anything.
Hey man, you into storm-chasing as well?
cool!
5109041 We had a tornado-like something or other pass through my town in July. No one could decide if it was just a swirl or an actual tornado since it was rain-wrapped, but there was a radar-indicated rotation.
We had trees down pointing in various directions in a skipping, zig-zag path, which is much more like a tornado than straight-line winds. But since it's Pemberton, NJ, no one cared.
Anyway, this little maybe-tropical-storm is the only chance for a storm in the next week. If it fails to fully develop, we may go all August with no tropical systems; the first time that has EVER happened (at least as long as we've had reliable data for the whole Atlantic basin, which is only about 100 years... a blip in historical terms)
I was just up in North Jersey this Sunday for a wedding, and we got SLAMMED by a storm that passed through (high winds, sideways rain, angry god thunder and lightning). Blew out in about an hour, but still one hell of a storm. I thought last year was the El Nino (I think that's how it's spelled)
5109170 We had a little thunderstorm on Sunday, then another little one yesterday. It's kept my plants fairly well-watered, except for the potted trees which need much more than just brief downpours.
5109041 Looks like Chantal's fizzling out already. The thunderstorms all collapsed around it this afternoon.
There's another flareup down by the Bahamas. It looks like a surface low is trying to form. But it's not going to be around for long either. The strong cold front sweeping down tomorrow across the East Coast and out into the Atlantic will quickly pick it up and throw it towards Bermuda within 2 days. So even if it manages to form into a storm, it'll have to undergo explosive development to be a threat to anything. I'll be watching for a peripheral trough, which can sometimes supercharge developing storms in a mere 24 hours.