On October 25, an early-season nor'easter formed off the United States east coast. The low deepened rapidly over the next day and brought hurricane-force wind gusts to coastal Massachusetts, but it was a non-tropical system. The system meandered near the coast for another day before slowly retreating eastward over the open Atlantic. It remained an intense low for the next several days, but was still attached to a frontal boundary. The low moved turned southeastward on the 27th and pursued that heading for a few days until it encountered warmer waters. Late on the 30th, the cyclone was classified as Subtropical Storm Wanda; it had more central convection and a tighter windfield, but was still interacting with nearby fronts.
After formation, Wanda slowed down and meandered across the open central Atlantic. Meanwhile, the cyclone was separating further from the nearby upper-level low. It transitioned into a fully tropical storm on November 1.
Wanda turned northward and made some steady progress in that direction over the next few days, following a trough to its north. The convective structure remained somewhat subtropical in appearance, with curved bands north and west of the center, but little in the way of deep central convection. However, on November 4, a ridge built to the north of Wanda and turned it back southeastward, in the general direction of the Azores.
By November 6, Wanda began to feel the pull of a powerful cyclone over the north Atlantic. It turned back to the northeast and began to accelerate, passing northwest of the Azores. The cyclone encountered high shear and colder waters and transitioned to an extratropical cyclone on the 7th.
The above image shows Wanda on November 3 over the open Atlantic.
Wanda took a meandering track over the north Atlantic, beginning as an extratropical low near the Eastern seaboard and ending past the Azores.
No comments:
Post a Comment