04 October 2012

Latest on Nadine, Oscar, and GOES-East

Just a short update today, since both named storms are weak and far from land.  The enhanced satellite image below shows the locations of the two systems marked with a red "O" and "N". 


This map shows the past, current, and forecast tracks of both storms... Nadine (AL14) over the Azores, and Oscar (AL15) south of the Azores.  Both are expected to become post-tropical within a day or so.


Nadine continues to lose its identity and is expected to become fully absorbed by a mid-latitude trough later today.  Depending on exactly when the plug is pulled, it will end up at about 22.5 days as a numbered system, which is enough to put it in fourth place for longevity in the Atlantic since 1851.

Shortly after my update yesterday, TD15 was indeed upgraded to Tropical Storm Oscar, the 15th named storm of the season.  As I pointed out in a previous post, historically, only about 8% of seasons ever reach the 15th named storm, so this is certainly impressive, but about a month too late to be considered for the record earliest formation date of the 15th named storm.

Today is the twelfth day since GOES-13's primary instruments failed, and the fourth day since GOES-14 has been allowed to drift eastward to take over the GOES-East "parking spot" at 75W (so today it would be centered over 102.3W).  For details on this manuever and the relative locations of the satellites, please see the last section in yesterday's post



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