Tropical Weather Briefing #7, Week of September 18

 GEORGE KASICA - Edited 9/24/2006 11:32 AM

Tropical Weather Briefing #7, Week of September 18 

Forecaster: Kasica

Basin: Atlantic

Storm: Tropical Storm Helene

At 15Z Tropical Storm Helene is currently located at 40.9N 37.5W and has mostly maintained its speed and direction since yesterdays briefing and is moving at 055 degrees at 18kts with maximum sustained winds of 60kts.

As stated in the discussion http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT3+shtml/241426.shtml (limited shelf life warning applies) the storms transition to an extratropical low pressure system appears to be complete as shown by frontal and cloud features. (1km IR and Visible Image attached)

Also in looking at the latest attached QuickScat pass from 0851Z you can see that as stated in the discussion the wind field is considerably larger, than but not as intense as the image from this time yesterday as the highest values are only in the 60kt range.

As the NHC said in the discussion, this will be their last update on this system, and mine as well, as my week as briefer is ending. I have probably learned more from the briefee responses that my job as briefer….I just sort of pointed out interesting things it was everyone else that added all the great details we’re all learning from. 
Thanks for making my week as briefer a good one.

Hints for the next briefer coming up on Monday, Phil Lutzak, are there are several areas of investigation on the Navy web site at http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.html as well as a couple no named and named systems: Yagi in the West Pacific Basin and Mukda in the Indian Ocean Basin.

Have a great Sunday, 

George

GO PACKERS!!
1_2006-09-24_1415Z_VIS_1KM_08LHELENE.65kts-970mb-404N-384W.jpg    
2_2006-09-24_1415Z_IR_1KM_08LHELENE.65kts-970mb-404N-384W.jpg    
3_2006-09-24_0851Z_QSCAT_08LHELENE.75kts-NAmb-395N-410W.jpg  

  
re: Tropical Weather Briefing #7, Week of September 18
BRANDON JONES - 9/24/2006 07:31 PM
Great job this week, George!

The NHC indicates that Helene has become extratropical. There advisory indicated that tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 430 miles! An expanding windfield is a classic sign that a system is becoming extratropical. You can see in the attached image that the system has a large windfield and takes on the appearance of a mid-latitude low pressure center.

  Helene_Extratropical.jpg