On September 17, an area of low pressure formed in the subtropical Atlantic, well southwest of the Azores. It moved northeast over the next couple of days and deepend fairly quickly. On the 19th, it developed enough organized convection to be named Tropical Storm Fay. Fay was a small cyclone, with a compact organized spiral structure sandwiched between two areas of hostile wind shear. It moved northeastward following a weakness in a ridge to its north. Meanwhile, the storm intensified and briefly developed a central dense overcast. Fay peaked with sustained winds of 70 mph and a central pressure of 995 mb late on September 20.
Around the same time, the system reversed course and turned back toward the southwest as the nearby ridge restrengthened. The upper atmosphere also became much less favorable and strong shear from the west-northwest swiftly ripped away Fay's central convection. This put the storm ona steady weakening trend. Apart from a couple of scattered bursts of convection, the storm did not reorganize, and its decay brought it down to tropical depression status by September 22. A lack of organized thunderstorm activity prompted a downgrade to a remnant low that afternoon.
Fay had other ideas, however, and blossomed with new convective activity the next day as it moved slowly westward. Despite upper-level convergence, it managed to redevelop into a tropical depression on September 23, and then back into a tropical storm that night. It reached a secondary peak with 60 mph winds on September 25. At that point, Fay turned southward, still moving only very slowly, and crossed under 30° N. The storm was still very far from any landmass. Dry air infiltrated the core of the system and it began weakening again, spinning down into a tropical depression on the 26th. It picked up a little speed toward the southwest over the next couple of days. Fay had warm water and low shear to work with, but a stable airmass was mostly stifling development. The system managed to regain tropical storm strength one last time late on September 28 before it once again lost convection the following day. It degenerated into a remnant low on the 29th. Fay's remnants turned westward until they dissipated a few days later.
The image above shows Fay near peak intensity on September 20.
Fay's meandering course included two disjoint stints as a tropical cyclone; even so, the cyclone never affected land.
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