Tropical Update by Dewdrop

**FOR MY SKY WATCH FRIDAY POST, PLEASE SEE BELOW**
Artwork by Klaus and Jane... borrowed image...

I just had to share an update about the tropics, since the activity out there is super-crazy, and I like to use my blog as a record as well as for information share. So, I start with Bertha and go through all the invest areas...
BERTHA NEWS

...TENACIOUS BERTHA REFUSES TO WEAKEN...
...BERTHA STRENGTHENS AND ACCELERATES NORTHEASTWARD...

Well, this little lady is certainly tenacious, unrelenting and persistent. She appeared as a strong wave off the coast of AFRICA!!! at the beginning of July!!! and hasn't quit since. Here we are 15 days after Tropical Storm Bertha was named such, and she has just strengthened... again (recall that she became a MAJOR HURRICANE at one point along the journey across the Atlantic). She is not considered a threat to land at this point, but she is impressive and still going. Yesterday, I joked that she could pull out a loop dee loop and shoot back around to hit NC... that is NOT the forecast. No worries from Bertha folks...

INVEST 94L NEWS

THE CENTRAL CARIBBEAN SEA ABOUT 400 MILES SOUTHEAST OF JAMAICA CONTINUES TO BECOME BETTER-ORGANIZED. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE UNITRECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THIS SYSTEM THIS AFTERNOON TO DETERMINE IF A TROPICAL DEPRESSION OR TROPICAL STORM HAS FORMED.

Invest 94L has been a wishy washy system, sometimes looking exceptionally ripe for the making, other times, looking like a disorganized mess. Well, she is looking quite ripe once again. Recon flights attempted to find a closed low earlier in the week, but they are seeing some really favorable signs of development and are giving this area a high probability shot at developing into a tropical cyclone in the very near future.

INVEST 95L NEWS
Well, 95L is centered over land which doesn't give it much of a shot at development. Had it been centered over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea, we might have an entirely different story, but as it stands this area of tropical moisture is pummeling Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala with some torrential rain, which will most likely result in flash flooding and mudslides, possibly deadly. 95L is not expected to become a named storm.

INVEST 96L NEWS

THERE HAVE BEEN SOME VERY INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS SINCE 08Z IN REGARDS TO THE TROPICAL LOW PRES OFF THE GEORGIA COAST. IT APPEARS A NEW SURFACE LOW MAY BE FORMING OFF THE SE GEORGIA COAST WHICH IS BECOMING BETTER ORGANIZED. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ARE CONDUCIVE FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT... THIS NEW LOW MAY BECOME A TROPICAL DEPRESSION TODAY OR EVENTUALLY A FULL FLEDGED TROPICAL SYSTEM BY THIS WEEKEND GIVEN IT/S POTENTIAL NEW FOUND LOCATION.

This is a very interesting system to me, and its location and proximity to me makes it of particular interest. 96L started as a low off the west coast of Florida (just outside of Tampa), showing a nice spin and some significant moisture... well, after dumping buckets of rain on the peninsula, the resultant low in the Atlantic was not nearly as impressive, and the National Hurricane Center dropped the probabilities of it organizing into a tropical something or other. Well, all that has changed... Yesterday, 96L's convective "bands" were actually visible in my neck of the woods, creating some interesting scenery as the convective bands of stratus invaded by beautifully convected and unstable atmosphere... robbing me of my thunderstorms... I guess it's a cool trade-off. It was really cool to see the edge of 96L on visible satellite moving over my area and to see what that translated to from the ground. I am such a geek.

Don't blink...

500 PM AST FRI JUL 18 2008

...BERTHA BECOMES A HURRICANE AGAIN...

Happy Friday!
~Dewdrop