A writer and a tropical muse. A funky Lubavitcher who enjoys watching the weather, hurricanes, listening to music while enjoying life with a sense of humor and trying to make sense of it all!
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Story of Francine. All the Parts That Made Her and Where Parts of Her Are Going Next? Look at Tropics ...Carolina Coast Possibilities, TD 7 ...
Mimic hints to more to tell ...
This Blog is mostly about Francine. From ULL to Blob to The Wave.
Now the question remains....
Does a new storm develop from her DNA... ...and her remnant rain in ATL off SE Coast?
Showing the wide view here to show the many parts of Francine. Her solid round ball that accompanies her remnant circulation that went North following the NHC track........the track follows the circulation center. However, often in a system such as Francine, that was really born from two entities that briefly came together to provide another landfilling hurricane on the GOM coastline....at some point it splits apart again and basically a "blob" of rain departed Eastward towards the Atlantic. Two parts that for a while beat as one heart, and now the Eastbound rain is creating dangers in the Florida Panhandle and possibly may seed a new system that could form off the SE coastline.
TD Francine Center <-----> Remant Rain went East.
It's actually fairly common for some named storm's leftovers to mix it up with an area of troubled weather and deliver a new named system. And, be clear every storm in any given year is it's own unique storm, I only offer this example to show that Hurricane Katrina "formed close in" off the Florida coast from a tropical wave and remnants of Tropical Depression 10. Leaving the discussion well written from Wikipedia below
"Hurricane Katrina originated from the merger of a tropical wave and the mid-level remnants of Tropical Depression Ten on August 19, 2005, near the Lesser Antilles. On August 23, the disturbance organized into Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas. The storm strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina on the morning of August 24"
So where do we go from here?
This is not some strange dramatic voodoo story of ghosts, goblins and meteorological hype. It simply is what it is and what was is gone and what may be... may be a storm off the East Coast that does unusual things around the Carolina coastline and or over land.
Gulf of Mexico satellite shows this well.
Exit what's left of Francine's circulation North.
Moisture part of Francine swirling off to the East.
Radar showing this evolution that may develop into a new system downt the road. Currently producing squalls coming in from the Gulf of Mexico in Florida where bands are being pulled North into Francine or what's left of her, now downgraded to a Tropical Depression.
Models this morning show this well.
So I don't want to close the book on the story of Francine, other than to say she was born of two systems, a westbound tropical wave that we watched seemingly forever and a blob that originated near an Upper Level Low that spun over the Gulf of Mexico seemingly forever. It took a while, quite a while, for it all to wrap up and become Francine. It was a mess, a real messy evolution and for a short while yesterday it provided incredible visuals of an organized hurricane finally.
NHC started off with low bids on intensity, walked it up to 100 MPH at some point backed down with lower expectations. Data from Recon showed it to have 100 MPH winds and part of me feels they should have left it the way it was originally. For a hot minute... or maybe an hour Francine looked like a formidable hurricane.
Francine doing the 2 Minute Drill.
Cat 2 for a long 2 minutes!
Okay maybe 2 hours!
She did attain 100 MPH winds as per NHC, but it wasn't very long and the shear that they insisted would weaken her near landfall did show up some as well as the ever present dry air. Still, it was explained that the cooler, drier area that found it's way into her system would weaken her overall intensity and yet exaggerate the winds with localized high gusts, strong and long that would tear across the region despite the lowered intensity.
There are wind reports that do not show very strong hurricanes winds after landfall, and they will be studied and more wind reports added and at some point Francine will be re-evaluated and I'm curious to see what NHC does with it or let's say has to say about it in their Post Season analysis.
Understand the lay of the land where it made landfall, and understand very little is above ground and much is marsh, swamp, low country and little delta like areas where rivers run out to the sea. It's where "Last Island Hurricane" came ashore (more or less) and after a pair of strong hurricanes there smashed the little boom towns out on the barrier islands, people died, people packed up and moved further inland. And, that's why you see very few large developed Coastal cities in this part of Louisiana compared to Florida that has both Tampa Bay and Miami hovering a sea level with tall buildings clinging to the coastline with break taking views.
It's a different coastline from Mississippi.
It's Marsh and most small towns are fishing villages.
Nature Refuges and Academic research facilities.
Homes are sparse and elevated.
Looks like land on a map.
It's Bays and Bayous.
Barrier Islands.
Cocodrie where flooding was wild...
is in the bottom left of this image above.
Good video on X @BradArnoldWX
Zooming in to that part of Louisiana
South of Cocodrie that flooded....
...is the Isle Dernieres now a Nature Refuge.
That was Last Island....
...that did not last the big hurricanes.
Link below..
Note how small Cocdrie is actually.
Let's look at Cocodrie.
Small sliver of streets.
South of Chauvin.
It's a long, long road to Cocodrie.
You see a lot of wild sunrise and sunsets I'm sure.
Mississippi coastline has towns and cities.
Small towns, bigger cities.
Gulfport, Biloxi
This region in Louisiana not so much.
Nature taught humans where to build.
Before NHC put up Cones and warnings.
A 150 MPH hurricane was a surprise.
Even a 100 MPH hurricane is a surprise...
...without watches and warnings.
I often disagree with things NHC does or says in their Discussion or advisories. For example, they had data that supported possibly 100 MPH close to landfall, then models changed and didn't support it and they pulled it back and then models showed something else as they often do. Then it intensified steadily in some 2 Minute Drill that the Dolphins love so much and suddenly recon info said it was 100 MPH. Surprise. Should they have left it at 100 to begin with and lastly was there really 100 MPH winds in Francine and if so for how long? Where they long gusts and transitory, an illusion or really there in small bands and areas around the developing eye? Research is always done post season, they don't just sit around playing on the incredible computers with large monitors shooting the breeze, they work all year and post season it's often analysis. This all said........Thank God we have the NHC and they do a great job giving us watches and warnings and heads up before a hurricane is on the way.
Damage seen across the area was not really consistent with 100 MPH winds, not to say they weren't, especially as that part of Louisiana has small structures, not always well built to codes that homes in Miami are built to and usually you'd see more damage than trees that go snap in steady winds of over 50 MPH easily. Gas Stations looked fairly good (a fast measure of intensity in a localized area) and trailers not so much. We will see.
Video looked awesome. iCyclone always delivers both incredible video and content. Reed Timmer was there having fun. Mike was riding on a long backroad talking to everyone online while trying to get 18 miles to a "real street" and well there aren't many real streets down that way, just backroads and often with rising water on all sides.
Lastly, let's talk about the water and the flooding. Please remember it rained off and on incessantly for a good 2 to 3 weeks from Upper Level Low's dirty side went inland and then went back out over water and evolved into "The Blob" before "The Wave" moved into the Southern Gulf of Mexico and began the mating dance that went on for days as the blob crept closer to the the wave and the wave waved to the blob but while the blob flirted it held back a bit forcing the wave to come after it and just as they looked like they were forming with a deep wild center that Alice could fall down fast, it fell apart again and both pulled back to their corners of the Gulf of Mexico and in one of the longest run on sentences and meteorological mating rituals I have ever seen in the tropics, "The Center" came back. This murky, messy creature rained on Mexico, refusing to leave the Tex/Mex coast and it wasn't until the original remant blob moved inland far ahead of Francine did Francine move out fully into the water and took deep breaths and found that it liked being Francine and wound up into what acutally looked like a Hurricane. Honored to get the Alice graphic from @Stormchasernick and yes the beautiful deep center came back. Like the cat. And, Francine moved rapidly towards landfall in an area that's population swelled with all the chasers who were there to chase her and Fancine delivered.
That really is the bottomline in that Francine delivered in the end. How strong it was and how strong for how long, really doesn't matter. The wind howled, trees snapped, chasers snapped pictures and took incredible videos and sometimes just had fun out there which you can do in a Cat 1 Hurricane vs a Cat 5 Hurricane when all you can do is hunker down at some point.
Francine is a good example of what a solid Category 1 Hurricane can do. Not all hurricanes have to be Major Hurricanes to make records, get attention and do destruction. I haven't heard of any deaths, hope there were none, but it's too soon to say we won this one!
It's not totally over.
The center went North, the weather/moisture/rain went East and is expected to arrive fully in the Atlantic where another blobby area close in (now with it's own yellow circle) is waiting for it and we will see if we get a non-tropical low or more a tropical low with a name. I'm waiting in NC to see more tropical weather similar to Debby from this though you are never sure what you are really going to get when you open a box of chocolates that don't have a code to tell you what you are biting into.
As for the Atlantic......................the MDR..................TD7 and it's friends and the new wave over Africa.
Hurricane Francine & Tropical Depression 7 ... Francine Center Stage Today. TD 7 Far Atlantic Off Africa. Yellow Circle OFF Carolinas Close IN... Lots of Waves
Francine
Cone for 11 AM shown soon...info at 10 AM:
TD 7 Below.
Discussion in video on yellow circle.
Honestly, decided to take the day and "enjoy" the coverage of Francine making landfall and do some things I need to do while watching online, on TWC and FOX Weather where experts give awesome analysis as well as ...hey... Cantore is on the road! Prayers this is not too bad for the people in the path of Francine, but again it's going to slam into all our favorite towns along the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, including New Orleans and up into Mississippi. The area off the SE in a yellow circle has long term implications for the East Coast from Carolinas up to possible NY and New England. So while it is only a yellow circle, should it form ...it could be a storm to remember.
Remember that while watching Francine. And thinking on TD 7 seen below.
There are some points I want to make and they should be remembered as Francine moves towards land.
Note the WEATHER ahead of Francine.
Also keep in mind remnants of the blob to the East.
5 AM Cone
My thoughts at 11 AM...
We have been trained like Pavlov's Dog to chase the Cone as we chase the center of the Cone. The center IS important for those in the center and for those chasing who want to be in the EYE and EYEWALL and it's an academic point, a fact ....and yet often in storms such as Francine the center is less important overall for impacts far from the center where people often feel "safer" and understanding the timing of things.
When they say what time landfall will be they often miss the point that severe weather, including tornadoes can be far out ahead of landfall, especially in a system such as this one. Remember when Idalia was still approaching landfall, there were strong winds and rain pounding Vidalia Georgia far to her NE as Idalia was a front loaded system. We often see them when they are in the Gulf of Mexico going NE especially when moving towards a feature that catches parts of them, way before it grabs the eye.
This whole area is NOW getting weather.
It'll get worse weather. It'll get random crazy weather. This is not a Cat 5 compact hurricane.
It's a hurricane....blob like in ways.
Strong center down to SW.
Heavy bands moving inland now.
All the strong weather to NE (front loaded)
Dry air = black on this loop
Darker the drier. White wetter.
Dry/Moist
Creates severe weather.
Stronger squalls over a wider area.
It's not your Momma's Katrina....
...get Katrina out of your mind.
It's Francine.
Elephant in the room:
There was a strange ballet evolving in real time on Mimic last night, stealing my attention from Francine. It was this dip dipping down and verifying the models that something could form off the SE Coast from several factors. I've mentioned this nonstop lately, when the MDR is not favorable and can't get much spinning, look close in as often something spins up close in off the SE coast. This morning's MIMIC shows a stronger, faster evolution but as always NHC floats a yellow Zero% in 2 day and 20% in the 7 day. It is almost always their opening bid, so to speak.
Special Advisory Hurricane Francine 85MPH Winds ...........
* * *
Track keeps moving East some...
See the pinks inside the white ball.
Eye wall trying to form... not yet.
On track... track shifted a dropo East.
Will see at 11 PM what they do.
New Orleans in Cone.
NOTE BLACK SHADED AREA AT TOP
"Hazardous conditions can occur outside"
Cone is for the "path" "track"
See colorful watches and warnings.
NHC not doodling....
..they are showing u watches/warnings.
From Tex/Mex border to Alabama.
Various watches and warnings.
Follow NHC and NWS in your local area.
The Salient or as I used to type $alient parts of the NHC Discussion deal with dry air hindering her development and how new data shows she is moving faster (8 MPH) and as she moves away from the interaction of land (Mexico) and dry air she should steadily intensify as she moves towards landfall tomorrow. Also modeling has shifted a bit East and the Cone has been moved a bit to the East now which you'll see better in the interactive cone below.
Parts of warnings up for Mississippi
Again as lay of the land there is one region.
For anyone that doesn't have a minor in Geography...
1 region as Louisiana goes out far to East.
Also when looking at this online...
...don't be distracted by the blob.
Blob to the N (original 90L to me)
Francine to S (91L)
We are tracking Francine.
See below.
Speaking of Invests.
92L models are changing.
Maybe NOT a Fish Storm??
Will deal with this another time.
But a reminder....
This is a video I made earlier.
It's a cut to the chase.
And a reminder not to look at the blob.
I'll update at 5 PM.
Unless something "odd" happens.
Being 2024 ... who knows.
Today is a "named storm day" and I'm taking the day off to watch coverage online a little and clean up the house some and figure what to make for dinner, which may be Jamalaya as we had hot dogs & baked beans with bourbon, molasses and all sorts of stuff in the baked beans.
Please keep reading the blog as it was written at 10:30 and all still relevant. Old saying, satisfaction delayed and that is what is going on though Francine on time more or less and NHC does a bang up job with their forecast these days especially and any possible curveballs will be dealt with in real time online, at NHC and your local NWS.
Have to tell you I LOVE this part of the country and when I say love it in some sort of gut wrenching feeling the first time I was there as if I lived there in a previous lifetime IF you believe in that sort of stuff. Or if you believe in genetic memory as my Grandma lived in New Orleans for quite a while when young and my family had tobacco farms in Quincy Florida so all along I-10 there there are distant relatives that show up on Ancestry and some I actually know. Love the names of places "Terrabone" "Cameron Parish" "Vermillion Bay" "Iberia" and have this weird fascination with St. Mary Parish because of a long ago dream. Love Low Country, always have. Love Marsh, yet not as much swamps. Definitely not into Swamp Chasing as many Chasers call chases in this neck of the woods. Distantly related to old Creole families originally from France who made New Orleans their homes but had farms not so faraway from Francine's path. My Southern Belle grandma liked to call them Plantations... tho not all farms in the South were big plantations, when they moved to Tampa my Grandma's mother had a pony and a small farm in her backyard in Old Tampa! It's like driving through the South and seeing Ionic columns in front of a small Fast Food Market or small bank. Southerners are as New Age as our beliefs and style, yet old school when it comes to food, music and family legends. New Orleans has a whole lotta legends and my Grandma Mary was not allowed to go to Mardi Gras as things got wild "back then" and she was afraid of the voodoo queen lol. Can't make this stuff up... if I was Grandma I'd take out my Ouija Board and ask it "where is Francine going" but luckily today we have the NHC!!! YAY!!
While Ouija Boards were fun with Grandma...
...NHC is a whole lot more accurate!!
Here's the song....
....keep reading tho!!!
Keep..........
.........Reading!
10 AM Discussion Below.
Current Cone at 10 AM
Still 65 MPH
Moving around 5 MPH N
(is that forecast speed or actual?)
Barely moving.
Forecast to start moving SOON.
IF that does not verify.
We need to rethink the situation.
I have issues with Francine.
I always have, been bugging me.
Being honest.
Note models beginning to bend right.
After landfall.
A look at this morning's models.
Still shows it going UP deep ...
Remember NHC tracks the "center"
Even a remnant center.
I have had problems with this forecast.
Models have been horrible this year.
To me it would be logical there's a bend East.
Especially as this is not a long duration Major Cane.
Sysetm to the N to grab it there...
...but not soooo strong.
And as always it's all about TIMING
For now Francine is temporarily stuck...
..moving slowly if at all.
But forecast to move fast ...
..and intensify.
Wicked sistuation if verifies. Tricky. Sneaky.
Watching in real time.
This is the center.
Do not be confused with convection to NE
Center is actually flaring up.
Made this screenshot today.
Mike on his Morning Brew.
Note how much convection is over Texas
Tex/Mex
So the story ending is not altered totally, but it is delayed. Tex/Mex getting pounded with rain from the West flank of Tropical Storm Francine and having part of her over a landmass or that near doesn't help her intensify. She needs to start moving further North up into GOM where she can find her groove. Add in the BLOB to the NNE of her needs to move away and let Francine breathe.
As always 2024 delivers 2 convective areas.
We saw this before earlier in the season.
Down low is Francine.
Up above is her huge shadow blob.
She came together from 2 parts.
She has not lost the other part.
This is how it'll play out.
Bottom Line....
Follow all info from NHC and your local NWS if you live in the region associated with Francine and or her stalker fan that refuses to leave and will also dump copious amounts of rain across the landfall are way before landfall. That's always a problem because it makes preparing for the forecast hurricane or evacuating from one harder if you wait too long.
Trust the NHC and your local NWS and proceed accordingly.
Don't listen to Aunt Martha who has a medium telling her the forecast.
Don't listen to the guy on YouTube promising you a Cat 4 Hurricane at landfall ...always.
Listen to the NHC and NWS and IF anything changes, they will change in real time.
I'll add song in after 11 AM Discussion is added.... stay tuned......
2 PM 60 MPH Stronger Tropical Storm Francine. IF IN CONE PREPARE for NHC Forecast Hurricane Francine. A Look Around the Atlantic!
TROPICAL STORM FRANCINE
NHC finds Francine stronger.
As expected... on her way to Cane.
This is what you call "blooming"
Blossoming...
Moisture feed goes ENE towards FL
Francine moving NNW at 5 MPH.
Will begin a turn later on.
For now it's consolidating.
Doing what it has to do.
Let's look around the Atlantic Basin.
There's Francine
(remember part of her was a dud wave)
Orange X shows higher chances.
...but one behind it has more excitement.
60/60 orange wave
30/70 red wave
There's another wave over Africa but...
...let's stick with these.
Invest 92L below.
Lead orange wave.
I know it's counterintuitive...
...is what it is this minute.
Models mostly...show it curving out to sea.
I will say the wave train looks better today.
More curvaeous
Waves in the ocean, cresting...
Not a flat... ocean.
Surfers totally understand this ;)
Long range model.
They all turn out to sea.
And yet...........
...there's a huge storm off of Carolinas.
GFS NEXT Saturday.
Canadian shows it as well but weaker.
I said long range.
Not showing what happens Monday after.
Use your imagination ...
Rides up coast towards BIG CITIES...
ICON shows a system off FL...
...sits and tries to form.
September 17th
The main point here is that while the MDR waves do get chances to get names or some sort of designation, but currently they look to swim off out to sea where they could wander about with some energy. But, there are no current scenarios where they make a bust WNW and go up and over the Islands. But when you have that many waves in September they are definitely worth remembering they are there and it is September Remember.
Do we always remember September?
For Hurricane Reason?
Other reasons?
Summer ends, kids go off to school.
Leaves turn and begin to fall.
September has so many things to remember.
I'm probably digressing LOL. Sorry in a mood today.
As for Miss Francine she is set to be a Hurricane. How mean will she be is the real question??
A hurricane down there in that region can do a whole lotta damage, destruction and sadly death.
Can Francine get stronger than Beryl?
Beryl on landfall trying to intensify?
We will see.
Many think she will pull East move.
My question is when?
On landfall or after landfall?
I'm a little unsure on end game.
I don't have any real deep reasons to say this, just it would be need to be really strong and feel the urge to go ...get pulled further to the North up the Mississippi River Valley. If she peaks too fast she could bend a bit more to the right and her weather will lean more towards Mississippi and Tennessee and I do mean WEATHER not the actual remnant center far to the left closer to the forecast track. We see this happen sometimes and waiting to not worry on that and just believe everything goes as planned. Early in the game, time will tell. Name of the "game" now is "PREPARE" if Francine is headed to your town!
Lots to do ... lots to think on.
As for the Wave Train. I do think one of those waves will go under the radar and pop up closer to let's say Florida and maybe that helps create this "born near Florida" system or just travels somewhere, wherever the weather patterns would take it when that happens.
Remember and don't fool yourself. Francine didn't just "POP UP" she's one part "the wave" we followed across the basin that didn't do anything until it met up with the forever yellow circle over the Gulf of Mexico that wanted so badly to spin, and finally found a way to spin and is now Francine!
Sweet Tropical Dreams,
BobbiStorm
@bobbistorm on Twitter
Twitter mostly weather and Instagram whatever.
LOL enjoy the song.
Had a friend who used to love to sing this song.
Why not sure, but she did...
We weren't good singers....
....better dancers
But we'd do routines to Oldie Goldies..
Being silly....
...so sticking with old songs.
Love 80s songs.
This was filmed at my friend's father's carnival...
... LA Days :)
As for the wave train
...may not be the one we wanted.
But one may catch our attention.
(I liked Grease 2...there's a song, bugging me)
But that's just me
ps there's this wave no one watching
Except me?
Definitely a weather maker
11 AM above
5 AM below.
As recon data comes in ....
...cone will shift around often to small degrees.
Don't follow the center line and expect changes.
Intensity and possibly direction.
5 AM Cone.
NOW we have TS Francine.
Salient parts of NHC Discussion shown with Selfie of Francine...
"guidance this cycle has shifted a little Eastward and faster" (both impt)
"shows Francine moving ashore of Louisiana sometime on Wednesday Evening"
"assuming the cyclone's veritical structure becomes aligned......" (always impt)
"significang intensification" is on the table.
Once again we would have a hurricane making landfall at night, unless something changes and often things change. Especially as Francine is still in formation stage. The question remains therefore, how vertically stacked will she be tomorrow? There's also a question of the influences of steering currents to the S and N of Francine ... sometimes the same feature can feed RI into a Major Hurricane and other times the exact same feature can keep Francine as a borderline Cat 2 trying to intensify. It's too soon to be sure, but because the Gulf of Mexico creates the old "bull in the china shop" set up ... it's important to take watches and warnings seriously from the NHC.
As the sun comes up... looked like a TS
What do I think?
This has a flash flood threat.
Topography of GOM shelf...
..in some areas leads to high storm surge.
Fast and furious ... it can't be ignored.
And winds...oh my goodness...
This could be one messy wind storm.
As a PTC it has 50 MPH Winds!
It's a solid ball currently of trouble.
I'll update at 2 PM with any upgrades in intensity or information. I think it needs to be taken seriously. In years such as this one we can easily see one or two storms over produce so to speak. And, hate to say it but the pattern in the Gulf of Mexico is ripe for more landfalls later this season.
Speaking of the rest of the season.... at 2 PM they will update the graphics so I'll go more into that than now.
Do you really want to dance the tango with this one?
Location: Miami, Raleigh, Crown Heights, Florida, United States
Weather Historian. Studied meteorology and geography at FIU. Been quoted in Wall Street Journal, Washington Post & everywhere else... Lecturer, stormchaser, writer, dancer. If it's tropical it's topical ... covering the weather & musing on life. Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/#!/BobbiStorm