A Look back on Chantal...

[Anonymous]

Tropical Storm Chantal of 2001 is my pick because it had interesting characteristics.

#1- Moved EXTREMELY FAST for the deep tropics.

#2- Was forecast to reach potental category 3/4 major hurricane status in the NW Caribbean/GOM.

#3- Was sheared badly, unexpectedly.

#4- Fooled many at the NHC for not becoming a monster hurricane.

Did anybody go through it, as a strong storm or a wave? Comments? Pics or Videos? Here's a nice pic:

http://www.hpdrc.fiu.edu/rac/storms01/chantal.gif

[Hurricanehink]

Except for the last 4 advisories and the advisory when they downgraded it to a Tropical Wave, every single discussion forecasted for Chantal to become a hurricane. The last 4 advisories also mentioned the possibility of Chantal becoming a hurricane, too. This just shows how unpredictable a hurricane can be.

I know this is off-topic, but why am I a snow flurry? I want to be a tropial low again. How can I change it?

[Anonymous]

Hink, it's winter so snow is what you are. I think in spring we become tornadoes. Summer, Hurricanes.

[Anonymous]

I once heard (I forget where) that some thought and compared Tropical Storm Chantal to Hurricane Camille! Boy were they wrong!!!

[Derek Ortt]

Chantal was never forecast to become anything more than a cat 2 and that was only on 1 or 2 forecasts. There was no indication at all of this becoming a major hurricane, except POSSIBLY, in the private 5 day forecasts. Most of the crazy talk about a cat 5 in the GOM was pure -removed- at one of the other boards. This did cause significant confusion among some.

Also, Chantal was a good classic Saharan Air Layer case as it was embedded within the SAL. A good rule of thumb for determining which storms are SAL storms, those screaming into the Caribbean are typically SAL storms

[Anonymous]

Look here:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2001/di ... s.009.html

"Chantal has potential to become a dangerous hurricane...."

[Derek Ortt]

I see an official forecast for a cat 1 hurricane in 72 hours. There wa ssome chatter in the discussion; however, the wording of a discussion does not represent a forecast, only the forecast points representent a forecast

[Anonymous]

Nevertheless 85 kts, or 100 mph is a very serious situation.