Franklin getting sheared

Newly-born Franklin is struggling. Recent IR satellite images show a substantial loss of deep convection on all sides of the storm, as strong outflow from the tropical wave in the Caribbean shears Franklin from the southwest side. The tops of the thunderstorms trying to organize around Franklin's center are being torn away by the shear. Since Franklin is still in a fragile formative stage, it is entirely possible the storm will be ripped to shreds in the next few hours, becoming one of the shortest-lived tropical storms on record. The latest Hurricane Hunter report put the central pressure unchanged at 1009 mb, and surface winds about the same as 1 1/2 hours ago. They commented that the center was now poorly defined.

Meanwhile, the tropical wave responsible for shearing Franklin continues to expand its impressive upper level outflow. However, deep convection associated with the wave has decreased in the past few hours, and there is no surface circulation. This wave is still a day or more away from developing into a tropical depression. When and if it does, it could become a very large tropical storm.

Jeff Masters