Hyperstorm wrote:cycloneye wrote:drezee,You dont have to worrie about this thread being locked as your initial question was good for a new thread.Also the discussions are going good in here.
Hyperstorm,I have a question about the Saharan Air Layer.How do you see the Atlantic this year in terms of more moist air or less sal?
Cycloneye...
It is impossible to predict with great degree of certainty how widespread/frequent the SAL will be in any given year. It all depends on several factors including the strength/postion of the Azores High and any drought conditions over Central and Western Africa, etc...
From what I've seen,, the Azores High has been in a more southern position than usual for this early. This causes dry air from the North Atlantlic to come down into the tropical Atlantic. It also brings cooler waters to the NW coast of Africa. I believe I also read that there has been no significant drought conditions over Western Africa. If this holds true throughout the rest of the season, we might see less frequent outbreaks of SAL over the Eastern Atlantic and most of the dry air would come from the waters up north.
The average number of Cape Verde systems in any given year is 2-3, so we can see that the Eastern Atlantic is not the most favorable place for development anyhow...
Thank you for the answer.Let's see what will occur in that part of the Basin in terms of how active or not the CV season will be.