SouthFLTropics wrote:Weather Dude wrote:0z GFS a tad S and a couple mb stronger than 18z through hour 174... Looks to potentially be another big run... also 94L much stronger and more defined than 18z
More importantly, 94L much further west. May open the door for this to escape East of Florida.
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Solid points being made about 94L here.
The strength/location of 94L beyond days 5-7 will have a huge impact on the strength of the western Atlantic ridge, which in turn, will be the main factor in how close to Florida the Caribbean disturbance (assuming it forms as advertised) will get to Florida. The farther west it goes, the "bigger hole it can chew" in the flank of the ridge, and the more likely a NE-ward escape becomes. However, one point I'd like to make: From my experience, global model guidance rarely underdoes the extent of westward retrogression of these subtropical latitude cutoffs that try to become STCs/TCs. While not always the case, I've observed that more often that not, these features don't retrograde as far west as model solutions advertise. It takes a strong ridge to push these types of lows significantly westward at a decent forward speed. Instead, what often happens is that they become quasi-stationary, or only drift westward at a much slower clip. Again, no guarantee that this will happen in this case, it's strictly an anecdotal observation.
But the strength/position of both the western Atlantic ridge and 94L need to be looked at closely over the next week plus...