11 August 2009

Second Tropical Depression of the season forms in far eastern Atlantic...

Two and a half months after TD1 formed off the northeast US coast, TD2 forms near the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa.  This is peculiar in two ways: it's rather late in the season to have the second Depression form, and it's rather early to have the "Cape Verde season" kick in.  The easterly wave that became TD2 was over Chad on August 4, and exited the African coast on August 8, so it has been a feature of interest for some time.  There's actually another potent easterly wave now located over Guinea, but that'll be a topic for a future discussion.

At 15Z today, TD2's intensity was estimated at 25kts and 1006mb.  It is located at 14.6N 29.6W and tracking W at 11kts.  It is embedded in an area of dry air (negative factor), it is over 27C water (neutral factor), and is in an area of minimal vertical shear (positive factor).  By this weekend, it may begin to feel a weakness in the subtropical ridge begin to move a bit more NW, potentially avoiding the Lesser Antilles.

It is forecast to become Tropical Storm Ana within a day, but maintain weak TS status for the near future.
The last time the second Depression formed this late in the season was 2000 (August 13, became TS Beryl).  The last time the first named storm formed this late in the season was 1992 (August 17, became Hurricane Andrew).

Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.

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