Why you should care about Tropical Storm Chantal?

By Damon Lane
Published On: Jul 08 2013 09:35:16 PM CDT
Updated On: Jul 09 2013 11:30:42 AM CDT

I know I know, you must think I'm crazy mentioning a tropical storm that is thousands of miles away and then saying that Oklahomans should still pay attention. I mean, we're not exactly living on the coast here.

But it's hot, it's been dry lately and when it comes to tropical storms, weird things happen... especially here. So, is Chantal really a big deal or no?

First, any storm that develops in the ocean is a big deal. Second, any storm that moves toward the United States is worth watching closely and third, tropical weather modeling is not as advanced as severe storm modeling is these days.

Severe storms form over land and are easier to study. Storms are numerous and tend to be more accessible than tropical storms that form over the middle of the ocean where data gathering is not as advanced.

Chantal is currently a tropical storm that is projected to move northwest toward Florida throughout the week. Most models agree on that, but the room for error spreads as we head past four, five, six days and more.

The current set up is that as Chantal moves closer to land it will be squeezed between a Bermuda high and a high pressure ridge situated somewhere between Oklahoma and Arizona. So the question is what happens to the remnants of Chantal after is moves past Florida? Does it move northeast or does it move west and start cycling back into the Gulf of Mexico?

These are just questions being brought up that we won't have the answer to until later in the week. I expect that Chantal, if it were to continue to move west, would do so as just a remnant low pressure system with some form of tropical characteristic to it.

It's a long shot but I have learned to never say never when it comes to Oklahoma weather. And given the craziness of our weather this year is it bad to think that it couldn't happen? NOPE!



blog comments powered by Disqus