Saturday, October 19, 2019

Tropical Storm Nestor (2019)

Storm Active: October 18-19

Around October 12, a large low pressure area formed over the southwestern Caribbean sea. The system moved slowly northwest over the following days but land interaction with central America stifled any chance at development initially. It emerged into the Bay of Campeche on October 16 and began a gradual turn toward the northeast. The disturbance deepened over water, but it also began to interact with a trough of low pressure to its northeast across the northern Gulf of Mexico. This interaction spawned a cyclone with some tropical characteristics, but which was also highly asymmetrical. The pull of the front also caused the system to accelerate northeastward. Finally, during the afternoon of October 18, the cyclone began sufficiently tropical to be classified Tropical Storm Nestor.

Though rather disorganized and not resembling a classical tropical cyclone, Nestor gained a boost in strength from the nearby trough, pushing it to its peak intensity of 60 mph winds and a pressure of 996 mb late that evening. By this time, the storm was approaching the panhandle of Florida, already bringing rain and gale force wind gusts. Nestor lost its tropical characteristics the morning of October 19 as convection retreated well to the east of the circulation and became post-tropical. The post-tropical storm made landfall a few hours later. Soon after, it crossed the U.S. southeast and exited toward the open Atlantic waters.



The above shows the disorganized Nestor shortly after classification as a tropical cyclone.



Nestor's remnants spawned a few tornadoes over the U.S. southeast as the system passed through.

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