A low pressure system over the eastern Atlantic Ocean has been classified as Subtropical Storm Alex by the National Hurricane Center.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Subtropical Storm Alex was located at latitude 27.1\u00b0N and longitude 30.8\u00b0W which put it about 785 miles (1260 km) south-southwest of the Azores.\u00a0 Alex was moving toward the northeast at 14 m.p.h. (23 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 50 m.p.h. (80 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 65 m.p.h. (105 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 990 mb.<\/p>\n
Subtropical Storm Alex evolved out of an extratropical cyclone that formed off the southeastern coast of the U.S. late last week.\u00a0 The extratropical cyclone cycled through the typical stages exhibited by low pressure systems in the middle latitudes as it moved eastward across the central Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 It eventually became an occluded extratropical cyclone over that region.\u00a0 The low pressure system moved south on Tuesday, which placed it over slightly warmer Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs).\u00a0 As it began to extract more energy from the warmer ocean, the fronts attached to the low pressure system began to dissipate.\u00a0 The low began to take on a more circular shape and convection began to intensify around the center of circulation.\u00a0 A more circular shape with no fronts and taller clouds prompted the National Hurricane Center to classify the low as a subtropical storm.<\/p>\n
A subtropical storm is a hybrid low with some characteristics of a tropical cyclone (circular shape and no fronts) and some characteristics of an extratropical cyclone (cooler air aloft).\u00a0 Subtropical Storm Alex has a well organized low level circulation.\u00a0 There is a clear area in the center that looks a little like the eye of a hurricane.\u00a0 The center is surrounded by a ring of taller clouds.\u00a0 Spirals bands of clouds are rotating around the core of the circulation.\u00a0 However, the vertical structure is different from a tropical cyclone.\u00a0 Subtropical Storm Alex is under an upper level trough and the upper level divergence is limited.\u00a0 Also, the clouds in Alex are not growing as tall as the clouds in a tropical cyclone.<\/p>\n
The environment around Subtropical Storm Alex would normally be considered to be unfavorable for intensification of a tropical cyclone.\u00a0 The SSTs are near 23.5\u00b0C.\u00a0 However, since Alex is near the center of an upper level trough, there is not much vertical wind shear.\u00a0 So, there could be a chance for some intensification during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Subtropical Storm Alex will move over cooler SSTs and it is likely to make a transition back to an extratropical cyclone in two or three days.<\/p>\n
The upper level trough is steering Alex toward the northeast and a general northward motion is expected to continue for the next several days.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Subtropical Storm Alex could approach the Azores in about 36 hours.\u00a0 It could bring strong winds and locally heavy rain when it moves over the Azores.<\/p>\n
Subtropical Storm Alex is the first tropical or subtropical cyclone to form over the North Atlantic Ocean in January since 1978.\u00a0 It is only the fourth tropical or subtropical cyclone on record to form over the Atlantic Ocean in January since 1851.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A low pressure system over the eastern Atlantic Ocean has been classified as Subtropical Storm Alex by the National Hurricane Center.\u00a0 At 4:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Subtropical Storm Alex was located at latitude 27.1\u00b0N and longitude 30.8\u00b0W which put it about 785 miles (1260 km) south-southwest of the Azores.\u00a0 Alex was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[316,312,317,318,315],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2127,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125\/revisions\/2127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}