On October 6, a late-season tropical wave entered the Atlantic. By October, the Intertropical Convergence Zone retreats southward toward the equator, so tropical waves tend to form at lower latitudes. This system was no exception; it tracked westward over the next couple of days at around 7.5° N, passing well to the south of Cabo Verde. Though the wave was producing widespread thunderstorms, it took time to spin up. Late on October 10, it had acquired enough organization to be designated Tropical Depression Nineteen. The next morning, it was upgraded to Tropical Storm Sean.
A gap in the ridge to Sean's northwest allowed it to turn right and gain some latitude over the next few days. Due to wind shear, the storm remained disorganized. It even weakened to a tropical depression late on October 11 before regaining tropical storm status the next morning when a larger area of convection developed on the east side of the circulation.
Shear over the system relaxed somewhat after that, but Sean faced the new obstacle of very dry air aloft. This proved to be a more potent adversary for the cyclone; it weakened and grew increasingly shallow on the 14th, returning to tropical depression status. Intermittent convective bursts allowed the storm to retain its status as a tropical cyclone into the 15th, but they became steadily less organized. The decaying storm also turned back toward the west in the low-level flow. Late that day, the system became a remnant low. Not long after, the remnants dissipated east of the Leeward Islands.
The image above shows Sean as a disorganized tropical storm on October 13.
Sean did not affect any land areas.
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