Laura headed north; Western Caribbean worth watching

Subtropical Storm Laura is headed north over colder water, and is not a threat to any land areas. Visible satellite images show that Laura has most of its heavy thunderstorm activity in a band removed several hundred miles from the center, a trait characteristic of subtropical storms. It is probably too late for the storm to make the transition to a tropical storm. By Saturday, the remnants of Laura are likely to be a powerful extratropical storm that could bring 50 mph winds to the British Isles.


Figure 1. Latest satellite image of Laura.

Western Caribbean disturbance
Thunderstorms associated with a trough of low pressure over the Western Caribbean waters are weak and disorganized. However, the NOGAPS and UKMET models are predicting this activity may start to organize by Saturday or Sunday, so we will need to watch the Western Caribbean this week. If a tropical depression did develop, it would likely stay in the Western Caribbean for a number of days, moving very slowly.

Hurricane Ike portlight.org charity relief efforts
I spent most of the day yesterday coming up to speed on the efforts of the Hurricane Ike portlight.org charity relief efforts spearheaded by Patrap, Presslord, and StormJunkie. I haven't finished writing up a full summary of the effort, but I have found that our donations dollars have been well-spent. All of those involved have done a great amount of outstanding volunteer work. I'll have more details in my next post.

Jeff Masters