Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

Alberto headed away from land; TD 2-E a concern for Mexico

Posted by: Dr. Jeff Masters, 14:07 GMT le 21 mai 2012

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Tropical Storm Alberto continues to struggle against strong upper level winds out of the west-southwest that are creating a very high 40 knots of wind shear over the storm. These winds are driving dry, continental air into Alberto, keeping its heavy thunderstorm activity quite limited. While the storm is being helped by the fact it is crossing the warm 27°C (81°F) waters of Gulf Stream today, this is not enough to offset the high wind shear. Small storms like Alberto are highly vulnerable to wind shear, and you can see all the dry air surrounding the storm, which the shear is driving into its core, on water vapor satellite loops. Alberto has begun an eastwards motion away from the coast, and will accelerate to the northeast later today and Tuesday as a trough of low pressure pulls it out to sea. Alberto has likely seen its peak intensity, and will not trouble any land areas. The storm brought up to an inch of rain to the coast near Savannah, Georgia on Sunday.

Figure 1. True-color visible satellite image of Alberto taken by the Aqua satellite at 2:30 pm EDT Sunday May 20, 2012. At the time, Alberto had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. Image credit: NASA.

Eastern Pacific TD 2-E may become a dangerous hurricane for Mexico
A more significant storm is newly-formed Tropical Depression 2-E in the Eastern Pacific, off the coast of Mexico. The depression is taking its time getting organized today due to its large size, as seen on satellite loops. But with favorable SSTs of 29 - 30°C and light to moderate wind shear in the 5 - 15 knot range expected along its path, TD 2-E should steadily organize on Tuesday and Wednesday, and become Hurricane Bud by Thursday. A trough of low pressure is expected to swing north of the storm late this week, turning TD 2-E to the north to a landfall between Manzanillo and Acapulco, Mexico on Friday. This storm has the potential to be a dangerous hurricane for the Mexican coast.

Figure 2. Sunday's annular eclipse of the sun as seen by wunderphotographer mcgino in Polverada, NM.

Spectacular annular eclipse of the sun on Sunday
On Sunday, sky-watchers along the U.S. West Coast and in Asia were treated to a rare annular eclipse of the sun, where the moon blocked out all but a thin ring of light around the sun. Our wunderphotos gallery has fantastic collection of some great eclipse photos people took. Dr. Cliff Mass' blog has a nice satellite sequence showing the shadow of the eclipse affecting the U.S.

Jeff Masters

Partial Eclipse Olathe,KS 05202012 (Acouostic)

Wonderful evening to catch the partial eclipse here in Olathe KS

Solar Eclipse (thomasanthony)

Awesome solar eclipse. Clouds cleared for a great viewing experience.

Oregon Annular (silverbeaver59)

Categories: Hurricane

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751. aspectre 10:59 GMT le 22 mai 2012
Skies over McAllen,Texas -- Delcia Lopez for The Monitor (Larger version) Member Since: 21 août 2007 Posts: 0 Comments: 4846

752. GeoffreyWPB 10:59 GMT le 22 mai 2012
Member Since: 10 septembre 2007 Posts: 0 Comments: 9127

753. wunderkidcayman 11:03 GMT le 22 mai 2012
Quoting GeoffreyWPB: once that blob to the south near Hon/Nic moves NW to the GOH system and that one just NW of Grand Cayman Island expands and moves S-SW the system will beast out Member Since: 13 juin 2009 Posts: 2 Comments: 5462

754. WunderAlertBot (Admin) 11:08 GMT le 22 mai 2012
JeffMasters has created a new entry.

755. stormwatcherCI 11:10 GMT le 22 mai 2012
Quoting wunderkidcayman: once that blob to the south near Hon/Nic moves NW to the GOH system and that one just NW of Grand Cayman Island expands and moves S-SW the system will beast out How can you think that two areas from the same disturbance can move in different directions ? Convection might increase to the SW or NW as you say but the areas of convection don't move. Member Since: 9 octobre 2008 Posts: 0 Comments: 8040

756. wunderkidcayman 11:13 GMT le 22 mai 2012
Quoting stormwatcherCI: How can you think that two areas from the same disturbance can move in different directions ? Convection might increase to the SW or NW as you say but the areas of convection don't move. ok stormwatcher come and meet me on next blog Member Since: 13 juin 2009 Posts: 2 Comments: 5462

757. GTcooliebai 11:13 GMT le 22 mai 2012
Ok Bud I see you Member Since: 31 août 2009 Posts: 0 Comments: 5202

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