Wednesday, August 4, 2010

"Colin the 2nd" or a New Name?


The above satellite picture shows the remnants of Tropical Storm Colin as of about an hour ago.  It is now just classified as a "remnant low" (or area of low pressure) since the system lost tropical characteristics yesterday. 

As I pointed out in the last post on Colin yesterday, the forecast models still call for the system to regenerate and become a tropical depression or storm again by late weekend, as the system moves toward the area Southeast of the US coast.

A good question posed by a blog reader was:  "if Colin regenerates into a named storm, will it be called Colin again?"  The answer is yes, as long as the regeneration occurs in association with the area of low pressure that was left over from the "original" Colin (i.e., the remnant low as referred to above).  Only if the remnant low pressure system were to completely dissipate and then a brand new area of low pressure form would the system have a new name.

In the meantime, an Air Force Recon plane is scheduled to visit the remnant low later this afternoon to look for any signs of reorganization.  The satellite image above shows quite a bit more thunderstorm development today, but the system still lies beneath an area of stronger middle and upper level winds, which would generally tend to make it hard for the system to get reorganized at this time.  Over the weekend the system will move into an area with more favorable potential for development, so it certainly bears watching at that time.

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