#215 Postby Margie » Sun Jan 01, 2006 11:09 pm
Even though Zeta's convection has dropped off and again been pushed to the NE, exposing the LLC, Zeta still looks good on satellite, oddly enough. The remaining convection has consolidated very close to the center, and, very importantly, some outflow is still occuring. The structure is still holding together well.
I'm wondering if it's possible the mid-level shear from the NW that is fueling some of the convection, is helping, because it has more moisture than the drier air to the SW. There is still some time before the diurnal max and so possibly by tomorrow morning Zeta will be able to build up some convection again.
Late evng update -- actually, dry air is eating into the convection, thinning it out, and making inroads from the east as it curves around.
But, significantly, what we have seen with these systems is that as long as there is some small amount of convection and some vertical structure, they manage to maintain on what would seem to be very little sustenance, regardless of whether convection grows or wanes, even if quite a bit of the LLC is exposed. So we can't gauge our expectations of how long the storm will last on whether it has significant convection. We also see over and over that the relationship to the shear is not as anticipated.
Stayed up way too late update -- Stewart's 4am discussion seemed on target to moi.
He didn't note though you can see the strong winds from the ridge to the N already having an impact, and pushing the upper level clouds from Zeta's earlier northern outflow to the southeast. With the late burst of convection, which seems to be continuing, it seems like the short comeback I anticipated earlier is starting, and Zeta may be looking pretty good by mid-morning, but I think now that the stronger westerlies are going to arrive earlier than the forecast 24-36 hours, unless Zeta ducks a lot more to the south, and convection could be gone by early tomorrow evening.
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