Ana heads out to sea as tropics cool down

Ana has morphed into a full-fledged tropical storm – but for just a hot minute. The core of the system, which evolved from giant, comma-shaped, winter-like storm, has broken free and is isolated from the parent storm’s associated cold front.

You can see that it’s clearly separated from the surrounding bands of clouds on the satellite. But you can also see that the clouds rotating into the center are thinning out.

Because it has sufficiently organized with thunderstorms arcing toward the center, the National Hurricane Center has officially designated it Tropical Storm Ana. The system is already weakening, however, as it heads out into the cold North Atlantic. The NHC estimates that it will be absorbed by a cold front tomorrow, if not sooner.

The general huge circulation around Ana’s parent system continues to push low-humidity, northern air across Florida and into the Caribbean. Typical late-May moisture should be slow to return. Yay!

Long-range computer forecast models don’t show anything developing over the next couple weeks. That’s not a guarantee, but good news none the less.