MSU Storm Chase Class

Saturday, August 15, 2009

TROPICS UPDATE





The tropics are heating up and we have two named storms in the Atlantic basin. Both Ana and Bill are tropical storms with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph. Both are moving westerly at 16 to 17 mph. Ana is forecast to maintain a more westerly track and Bill a WNW track. This subtle difference is HUGE because Ana is forecast to track over more land than Bill which means Ana will be weaker. Bill is forecast to track a little bit further northward and become a hurricane by Wednesday. The Bermuda high is directing the storms due to the clockwise flow around the system. The U.S. (Florida) may be impacted by Ana as soon as Thursday, however, Ana may only be a tropical storm at the time. A lot can change between now and then and both of these systems will need to be watched closely.

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