SATELLITEINTERPRETATIONDISCUSSION |
Regional and Mesoscale
Meteorology Team
Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA)
Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado
November 27, 1998
|
|
| In a few days (November 30) the 1998 North Atlantic Hurricane
season will officially come to a close. A late season Tropical Storm
Nicole has appeared in the eastern subtropical Atlantic, about 1000 miles
west of the Canary Islands (near 26N and 35W). Convection is minimal
and shallow but it is located over 24 deg. C water. Yesterday (Nov.
24) there was minimal vertical shear and an increase in intensity, but
today Nicole is being sheared from the West, as is visible from the exposed
low-level center on the left side of the dense overcast in figures 1 and
2. As of today, November 25, maximum sustained winds have decreased
to near 50 MPH with higher gusts. Continued gradual weakening is
forecast during the next 24 hours.
An inspection of METEOSAT imagery archived at CIRA indicates that the origins of Nicole have been around for quite some time. The system can be traced back to a position just west of the Portuguese coast on November 14. It appears to originate from a decaying, mid-latitude cyclone which initially became trapped under a blocking high pressure system in the Northeast Atlantic. |
Figure 1 GOES-8 IR NOV 25 18:15 UTC Click image to enlarge |
Figure 2 GOES-8 VIS NOV 25 18:15 UTC Click image to enlarge |
Click here for a 3-channel multispectral GOES image of Tropical Storm Nicole
http://www.osei.noaa.gov/Events/Tropical/Atlantic/TRCnicole329_G8.jpg
Multispectral imagery courtesy of:
Operational Significant Event Imagery Support Team:
Fernando Sotelo
fsotelo@ssdnotes.wwb.noaa.gov
Litton, PRC, GOES Data Distribution System Support Contractor,
NOAA/NESDIS
Thanks to Todd Kimberlain for his help in tracing the
origins of T.S. Nicole