Tropical Storm Chantal now just a depression

Chantal weakens to become tropical depression

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Chantal barely made it 24 hours as a named storm. System now a weak depressiion there is a slight possibility it could regenerate. No matter, it will stay far, far away from any land.

Expect more Chantal like storms the remainder of this season. These weak and generally out-to-sea systems are more common during El Nino hurricane seasons. We are seeing a weak el Nino.

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As discussed over the past few days we have been in an upcycle when it comes to tropical storms and hurricanes.The current upcycle was forecasted way back in the 1980s by Dr. William Gray and his team at Colorado State University. Their decadal seasonal projection was based upon a 40 year cycle of active and less active Atlantic Hurricane seasons. The 1970s through the mid 1990s were part of a down cycle, since then we have been in the upcycle.

And it has been very busy.

Additionally, with so many people thoroughly watching all of the satellite data more intently since the internet has been available to everyone, smaller, more high latitude systems that were not necessarily tracked in the past are now being classified much more frequently. 

In other words, these hybrid systems (like Chantal) have always been there but were not counted as they are today.  Counting these more hybrid systems added between 1-4 weak systems each year.

There is true tropical system (very weak) nearing the Bahamas here's more...

 


About the Authors:

Richard Nunn is the Weather Authority Chief Meteorologist