gatorcane wrote:The GFS develops an upper-level low just east of the Bahamas in 3 days with increasing wind shear from the north by days 5 and beyond. Plus it shows a lot of dry air as some have pointed out. The situation reminds me of when Hermine was an invest in a similar area last year where the Euro kept showing a hurricane into the Bahamas and South Florida while the GFS did not show much due to upper-level low in Bahamas. GFS ended up verifying as the Euro completely missed the upper-level low.
What I think we may have going on here is a little bit of a chicken vs. egg thing. The GFS and ECM are nearly identical in their 500-200MB height/wind/vort patterns through 00Z SAT. Both models retrograde a pinched off piece of the mid-oceanic trough (i.e. a TUTT low) westward from about 40-45N along 20-25W underneath the mid/upper reflection of the Bermuda ridge for several days.
However, in spite of almost identical mid-upper patterns, there's YUGE difference in the extent of surface development in the two models up through that time. The GFS shows a weak inverted trough with pressures around 1014-1015MB, while the ECM shows a 1007MB TS. Beyond that time, the ECM continues to spin up the TC to where it creates an upper level anticyclone which pretty much eats up whatever is left of the upper low. Any increase in upper tropospheric NE or E shear east of Florida is at least partially attributable to the eastern flank of an upper level (Sonoran) ridge building eastward across the southern U.S.
To me the GFS' lack of development doesn't appear to be due to a stronger upper level low , but rather the lack of development through 72-84 hours results in less development of upper ridging aloft, which allows the upper low to maintain a more coherent identity. Like I said at the beginning of my post...chicken/egg.