NorthHillsWx

Wow, this storm makes a lackluster storm season a little better for sure. Power went out a few times, likely lightning strikes. Felt like we were under attack from the heavens. Still going strong. Going to make a run at 2” here shortly

Best storm of the year right now. Edit: Wind gusts probably 40-45, torrential rain, and absolutely non stop lightning. Still going strong, did not expect this today

Always a possibility at these low latitudes

Convectively at the moment, Grace looks well on its way to becoming a hurricane. Fast motion is the only roadblock at the moment. Might have a window in next 36 hours.

I think it’s a prerequisite these days that every single storm in the Atlantic at some point has it’s center modeled to be over Tampa bay, but it never actually happens

I don’t want to see this thread 36 hours from now if “Fred” maintains its current form during that period

A broad area of 5 kts of wind…

Also, the storms that keep getting mentioned in this thread are more related to the influx of tropical moisture interacting with a trough than what remains of Fred, though I guess by default Fred’s moisture is somewhat responsible

I still haven’t seen a definitive center today, the low level cloud swirl this morning still didn’t have defined west winds. There’s radar and everything is moving some kind of west. This is a wave, NHC has not downgraded just for purposes of continuity expecting it to redevelop, which I do understand

Really struggling to see Fred as a cyclone this morning. Whatever remnant circulation seems to be strung out and devoid of convection.

That was an all-timer

No dice on the rain. Hat about two straight hours of thunder though. Had dinner at a friends house near 540 (about 5 min from me) and they had had a ton of rain, water ponding in their yard and rushing down the street

Glad there’s something else to track already. Thought for a second Fred would be interesting, but he decided to commit suicide in the mountains. 95L had had “that look” for a couple days.

Currently 97 with a heat index of 106.3. Good grief!!! Getting some pretty good thunder at the house with storms just to my west and north, maybe I’ll get lucky?

Seemed like all summer we had dodged the worst of the oppressive heat waves. That’s all changed last two days. This is flat out miserable stuff! Love living here but these types of heatwaves break your spirit walking outside!

Fred’s presentation actually has improved markedly in last few hours with a large blowup of storms directly over what now looks like a vigorous llc. Does not surprise me to see some pretty good winds there and would not surprise me much if the storm was actually bit stronger than 40 kts at time of landfall

92.7 with a heat index of 103.3… UGH!

Fred’s circulation is actually much better defined today in visible and as noted in the 11am discussion, recon found as much. Funny how misleading the convection yesterday was. I’d say Fred is considerably better defined at this point with minimal convection than at any point yesterday. What does it mean? Not much, that center is going to be shredded. Guidance moving further and further west has large implications as well. It keeps the majority of the system inland over Haiti and Cuba. This all favors a significantly weaker scenario. If the system had crossed the Dominican Republic, or even Puerto Rico as some modeling signaled yesterday, it would have had a much better chance to strengthen with the extended period of time over the Atlantic. Now the question becomes 1) can the system survive enough to have a chance to strengthen in a couple days 2) does it go far enough west into the Gulf to be able to take advantage of bathtub water or does it ride the Florida peninsula and struggle further with land interaction? All this and the environment ahead of Fred is extremely marginal.

Definitely going to be a situation where it will either reform or die. To your point, almost no chance the weak center survives. Also, the convection to the south is likely going to be choked off going over the mountains. This system could very easily fizzle without much ado at this point, though I think we will see some form of center reformation to the north of Hispaniola in 24 hours

Poor Fred, about to take the worst path possible for land/mountain interaction

Please be careful buying into specific model runs at this juncture especially as it pertains to Florida impacts. I’d focus more on large scale factors at this point considering the uncertainty of land interaction and state of the system afterwards. I will say, this one has a high ceiling especially if the models showing the decreasing shear and favorable shear vectors are correct

Outflow looks awesome at the moment, the upper level anticyclone is really helping fan out. New deep convection keeps firing over the estimated center and this sustained convection will see pressure falls shortly. I’m convinced we have a cyclone, in visible you can clearly see what looks like a vigorous SW and SE component to low level cloud motion, and this screams to me that the fully closed circulation is there underneath the convective envelope. Further, we now have radar data and it appears to show a cyclone at this time. As for intensity, the hurricane hunters did not find TS winds, however since that time, some pockets of 40-45kt height based estimates exist, so it’s definitely on the threshold of a TS. Given the favorable upper level pattern and position in the far eastern Caribbean Sea in peak season, the short term prospects for intensification look promising. If it’s able to develop a core and mix out dry air (mid level dry air should not prevent strengthening with little shear to mix it into the circulation, assuming circulation is well established) I see no reason why this won’t be a mid-high grade tropical storm AT LEAST when it starts to interact with the Hispaniola. Not going to forecast intensity beyond there, there are too many variables, but if the circulation survives and remains vigorous regardless of wind speed, the environment becomes very favorable east of Florida.

I can’t stand Katrina comparisons and wish pro Mets would stop trying to drum up attention for their posts. This isn’t even named and to see a Katrina comparison, even if it’s based on pattern not storm composition, is irresponsible and not helpful

Coming into view on San Juan radar. Have to say, that looks like a cyclone to me.

Last year most storms managed to skirt the islands or took fortuitous tracks to minimize land impact