TD 10 dies, Irene moving out, more African dust

Irene
Irene has begun its turn, and is now moving out to sea on a NNE course. Recent satellite images show a decrease in convective clouds over her, and I expect the 2pm EDT Hurricane Hunter mission will find a weaker storm. Irene still has a chance to make it to hurricane status over the next day or so, but that would be a surprise.

TD 10
TD 10 got ripped apart by winds from a big trough that penetrated unusually far south for this time of year. The current wind shear forecast shows relatively high shear hanging around the vicinity of TD 10's remains, so regeneration of this system is unlikely over the next few days.

African Dust
Another big area of Saharan dust is moving off of the coast of Africa today between latitiudes 12N and 17N, and has pushed as far west as the Cape Verde Islands. The associated dry air will cause problems later in the week for any tropical storms that try to develop in the mid-Atlantic.

It looks like a quiet beginning of the week in the tropics!

Jeff Masters