Tropical storm (err, hurricane!) Vince heading for Europe?

[David Shohami]

A tropical storm forming where it did (34N), moving immidiately north-east and not west or north-west (or even north), and making its way towards Spain?!

How rare is this?

 

[Andrew Khan]

This is pretty rare, indeed. Usually, Hurricanes don't form in this area, due to certain climatology factors, affecting TS/Hurricane development.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

SST’s are warmish enough (23c-34c) to support cyclone development and latest satellite numbers now support 60 knt winds! However Vince is a very small system and will soon be absorbed by a cold front that is surging south East towards it.

Interesting that some of our higher tornado days (numbers wise) in North West Europe occur from frontal passages that contain tropical air.

From the TORRO FAQ.
The largest tornado outbreak in Britain is also the largest tornado outbreak known anywhere in Europe. On November 21, 1981, 105 tornadoes were spawned by a cold front in the space of 5.25 hours. Excepting Derbyshire, every county in a triangular area from Gwynedd to Humberside to Essex was hit by at least one tornado, while Norfolk was hit by at least 13. Very fortunately most tornadoes were short-lived and also weak (the strongest was around T5 on the TORRO Tornado Scale) and no deaths occurred.

 

[B Ozanne]

I'm not sure if this is a typo, but the NHC site has the system as a hurricane. It doesn't say anything in the discussion or public advisory, but the graphic says "Hurricane Vince"

Edit: Ok, I'm told the advisories now verify the hurricane status.

 

[Stuart Robinson]

Err Vince has just been upgraded to a hurricane :shock:

 

[Jeff Snyder]

I'm not sure if this is a typo, but the NHC site has the system as a hurricane. It doesn't say anything in the discussion or public advisory, but the graphic says "Hurricane Vince"

Bill,
The system is upgraded to a Hurricane as of the 21z advisory package.

 

[David Shohami]

This is quite amazing!

It already looked more than just a tropical storm in the sat pic in the first message, with that nice distinct eye.

Could this be the northern-most system that developed to a hurricane? I mean wow, 34N, this is the mid latitudes...

 

[Andrew Khan]

The eye is really awsome on this thing, isn't it? What category is it, 1?

 

[Chris Nuttall]

http://oiswww.eumetsat.org/IDDS-cgi/listImages

Go here for satellite images of Vince. You can also view a loop. Guess we shouldn't be surprised at the weird-ness of Vince (is that even a word?). Pretty much fits for this bizarre hurricane season.

 

[Andrew Khan]

LOL, it really fits this years overly-hyper hurricane season.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

My friend gave it a good name... the "Spain-o-cane"



Aaron

 

[Chris Sokol]

The Cane in Spain will mainly cause some rain.

 

[MClarkson]

a hurricane(named system 20) with a well defined eye headed off the coast of portugal?


Well, given what has allready happened these past 2 years, Im really not all that suprised.

 

[Pat Lawrence]

My friend gave it a good name... the "Spain-o-cane"



Aaron

Spain-o-cane would just about describe it! I'm beginning to wonder if icewater wouldn't produce a tropical system this year

Pat

 

[Stuart Robinson]

This is about the best image of Vince that I can find - taken at 16z. I notice that at 16z the western side looks somewhat devoid of convection - but also that there is a good convection in the NW Quad.

http://www.btinternet.com/~wokingham.weath...-1700-vince.JPG