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Monday, October 12, 2009

Henri Now Disorganized, Forecasters Watching a Low Near Venezuela


The remnant clouds and thunderstorms that once belonged to Tropical Storm Henri show up on NASA satellite imagery as a disorganized area of cloudiness. South of where Henri's remnants are located, however, is an interesting area of disturbed weather approaching Venezuela.

NASA's Aqua satellite flew over the area of clouds and showers during the afternoon of October 8 and visible imagery revealed that the remnants Henri were disorganized. At that time Henri had weak low-level circulation, and any convection (rising air that forms thunderstorms) was removed from the center of the storm. When thunderstorms and showers become detached from a storm's low-level center it's an indication that the storm is waning. Henri's dying breath came around 5 p.m. EDT last night, October 8, when his sustained winds were last near 30 mph and they've weakened significantly since then.

By the morning of October 9, Henri's remnants were located about 200 miles northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The remnants were producing disorganized thunderstorms. The northern Leeward Islands and Virgin Islands should anticipate 1-2 inches of rain.

The National Hurricane Center noted that Henri was done in by vertical wind shear and because the system is still in an unfavorable environment (still battling wind shear), regeneration is not expected.

Meanwhile, NASA's Aqua satellite also caught a glimpse of an area of disturbed weather associated with a tropical wave near the Windward Islands. That area of cloudiness has more form to it than Henri's remnants and its moving at a good clip, between 20-25 mph. The system did become less organized since late Thursday, and development into a tropical cyclone isn't expected in the next day or two as it interacts with Northern Venezuela over the weekend. Still, the National Hurricane Center gives it less than a 30 percent chance of development. It will be an area of interest over the weekend.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2009/h2009_Henri.html

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