Ophelia dissipates and Philippe forms

Since my last update on Friday, Ophelia succumbed to the strong vertical shear and lost its tropical characteristics... namely, co-located persistent deep convection.  The final advisory was written on Sunday afternoon, and it's currently being tracked as a remnant low with a slight chance of regeneration... located northeast of the Leeward Islands.

Also since Friday, the disturbance I mentioned in the far eastern Atlantic was upgraded to TD17 shortly after my update was sent out, then upgraded again to TS Philippe on Saturday afternoon.  Philippe is the 16th named storm of the season... climatologically we would have just 8 named storms by this date.  Amazingly, 2011 is on par with the hyperactive 2005 season (in 2005 we were at the 17th named storm by this date).  As of this morning at 15Z, Philippe is a 50kt tropical storm located 600 miles west of the Cape Verde islands.

Philippe is also struggling with fairly strong vertical shear, as well as moderate SSTs (27C)... it should continue to maintain TS intensity as it recurves to the north in the coming days.  The 500mb chart below shows a deep trough in the central Atlantic that is responsible for recurving this storm so quickly.

Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.