northjaxpro wrote:Good evening ozonepete. Want to get your insights on the latest with Joaquin. I have shared some thoughts of my own.
Hi northjax.

I just got on here so I haven't seen your comments. Thus mine are given without bias towards or against yours. The key for all of these forecasts as to whether this landfalls on the east coast is when, where and how strongly the Midwestern trough negatively tilts and catches Joaquin, including the possibility that it doesn't catch our hurricane at all, which is what the euro has assumed all along and now the other models are buying. Now you would think that since the extra G-IV samplings and extra east coast balloon samplings have occurred that the models are getting a better handle and that's why they're coming into agreement. But this particular interaction of the trough and Joaquin are so complex and still not even initiated yet that I have come to the conclusion we can't rely on any forecast, including blends, until Joaquin turns north and starts to accelerate. It's only then that the models can really resolve how much Joaquin may get pulled northwestward by the northern side of the trough, if at all. And the logical extension of this logic right now is that the further west Joaquin gets before the turn, and the stronger and deeper that trough reaches southeastward, the more likely that the trough catches this TC and pulls it northwestward.
Finally, when the models pointed to a landfall in the mid-Atlantic for days, everyone assumed it was true. Then the models for the most part had it curving into Hatteras/SE VA yesterday and everyone was fine with it - done deal. Now the models have it going out to sea and everyone assumes they are right again, just because the models agree with the euro. Granted a consensus has developed but I don't see a lot of reasons for high confidence yet. Not until this turns.