TS Henri and another Atlantic Blobette: October 7 Update A

TS Henri. The blob I said we should keep an eye on a couple of days ago
has indeed developed and became a TS late yesterday. He's currently
heading westward(ish) at about 15 mph. Because of wind shear the center is
west of the convection, which has restricted his growth. If you look at a
satellite image you can easily see it swirling away. For example, go to
the NHC website (www.nhc.noaa.gov) and click on the word 'satellite' on
the left panel. Scroll down until you find 'Atlantic Floater 1'. No, this
is not referring to a dead fish in the Atlantic ;). Under that you should
see 'Henri'. The 'floater' satellite imagery is basically only used to
provide close-ups of a storm when there is one. To see a still picture of
Henri, click on the word 'Image' next to visible. If you want to see a
movie (provide your own popcorn :)), then click on 'java' in the same
line. I prefer the movie version myself, it just takes a little longer to
download.

He's currently at about 19N, 58.3W. Wind speed is 45mph, making him a weak
system (TS range: 39-73mph). Central pressure is only 1007 mb.

Mais (that's 'but' in French cos Henri is French :)), the convection is
quite strong for such a small storm. It is all to the east of the center,
and has died down a bit in the last few hours. Mais (I do know other words
in French you know), the cloud tops were quite cold earlier, which means
deep convection. It's a good thing there has been some shear otherwise
Henri would have been bigger! He's over water with temps over 29 deg C.
And circulation is still pretty good in the lower half of the troposphere.

The forecast is for him to downgrade to a low by tomorrow evening because
of persistent strong wind shear. I'm a little more cautious about this,
because when I looked a couple of hours ago, the wind shear looked like it
was diminishing. Hopefully it'll be enough to keep him at bay.

There's a large blobette just southeast of Henri. Lots of clouds, but not
a lot of circulation, so I won't write more on the blobette unless it gets
organized.

It rained here all day today. That's about all we got from Grace and the
front she was part of. I did find my Wellington boots - thank you all for
your comments there. Hee hee.

I'll be back with hopefully a wrap-up on Henri tomorrow.
A bientot mes amis! :)
J.

Disclaimer: These are not my opinions. Er, no, that doesn't sound right.
Oh yes, these are just my opinions and not those of any organization I
represent. That's better. :)