1940:00z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared Southeast USA (click here for 12 hour loop)
It has been more than interesting to witness first hand how a 'near shore hurricane' forms. I was in Wilmington, North Carolina for a few days and will probably return there before much longer to observe "Alberto" more closely.
It is the 'sea spray' you see. The sun goes down, but, the tide never stops. While the air is cool along the coast the sea mist consolidates into clouds above the ocean. After the initial beginning the clouds then take on a very odd characteristic during the day as the moisture from the repeating sea spray is carried to higher altitudes to begin to spin and form a heat vortex.
1930:00z
UNISYS Water Vapor USA (click here for 12 hour loop)
There are two front boundaries moving toward each other. The hurricane is noted off Georgia/South Carolina. Interestingly though, the two boundaries are defining themselves along another moisture source, the Mississippi River.
1930:00z
UNISYS Water Vapor of North and West Hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop)
But the accumulation for the Alberto isn't all from near shore sea spray, there is also a very dense water vapor trail immediately to the east of it.
...Alberto (click here) is this years first tropical storm and radar is already picking up some rain off the southeast coast. Alberto is expected to stay off the coast and not make landfall. Some moisture from Alberto could get pulled into our area Monday and enhance our showers just a bit. Anytime you get a tropical system involved with another low pressure area, the rainfall from the non-tropical storm can be higher. Most of the heaviest rain should stay off the coast Monday night.
It was interesting to watch this hurricane develop and all the weather persons be wrong. They were predicting a movement out to sea and a good weekend. By Friday evening they finally realized this system wasn't going anywhere. I was waiting for someone to say this is looking like the first storm of the season, but, I guess they are still expecting them to come from Africa. The air next to Earth is very dry and very hot. Where air evaporates in large quantities it will accumulate and form a turbulent system. There is too much heat for it to simply move offshore.
