Look wha's heading for Europe in March

[malaise]

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Can you explain?

It seems to predict 40mph winds in 24 hours time - somewhere. :shrug: not special for equinoctial gales, I'd have thought.

[malaise]

5. A tropical storm in March?

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201190_model.html
This must be a first

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. I wouldn't call 40mph winds a 'storm'

and neither would the Beaufort scale. It's a 'gale', and, yes, we get them pretty much at any time of year - certainly in March (less common in summer, it's true).

[Systematic Chaos]

10. Uh, the POINT is that the storm is expected to develop TROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

Even if it's just barely a Tropical Storm, for it to form way out there, in March???

Pretty much unheard of.

Now an extratropical run-of-the-mill storm with 40 MPH winds this time of year? Sure, those are a dime a dozen.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. The thing is, the diagram just says 'L' for 'low'

The title of the web page does say "Tropical Storm: Computer Model Hurricane Forecasts", but are we certain that does actually make it a tropical storm? It's a map that has no clue where the low will go, it seems, and I can't see anything about what it's expected to develop into. And it is currently extra-tropical - latitude 33N or so.

The forecast for Funchal, Madeira, which is the closest place I can find to the current centre of the low, doesn't look too bad: http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/08521.html
http://www.buoyweather.com/wxnav6.jsp?program=nww3BW1&grb=nww3®ion=madeira&latitude=32.5&longitude=-17.0&zone=0&units=m

And I can find nothing anywhere calling it a tropical storm, or warning of expected bad weather. What are the characteristics that make it like a tropical storm? Is any meteorlogist actually calling it a tropical storm?

If you do look for 'tropical storm' and Madeira, you see some amateurs called what happened in February last year a tropical storm:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=334216

But someone who lives there says it wasn't a tropical storm: http://www.madeirablog.eu/2010/02/21/what-happened-exactly/

and the news reports didn't call it a tropical storm:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Madeira-Seven-People-Die-In-Flooding-And-Landslides-On-Portuguese-Island/Article/201002315554669?lpos=World_News_First_World_News_Article_Teaser_Region_1&lid=ARTICLE_15554669_Madeira%3A_Seven_People_Die_In_Flooding_And_Landslides_On_Portuguese_Island

[virgogal]

2. Okay,I give up.

[Systematic Chaos]

4. Why give up? When you think about it, this is some seriously entertaining shit right here.

:popcorn:

[virgogal]

9. Well I tried again. Went to the site and did my best but only found some georgous

photographs under World View,but that was it.

The photos were worth it though.

[RagAss]

3. A Huge String with Dots on it ????

[msongs]

6. nah, Europe is being attacked by dozens of black squares lol nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Tropical storm IN MARCH?

Nah there is no global weather change, nope, not any of that lib'rul shit!

By the way a few weather scientists are now talking superstorms for Cali... as a possibility.

Isn't that fun?

[Systematic Chaos]

11. Way back in -- I wanna say -- 1990, the remnants of a hurricane in the Baja...

...came up through Las Vegas. It was still damn impressive even after all those mountains. Nothing but huge dust storms and winds of about 40-50 MPH for hours.

I remember it well because the 7-11 store I was working in at the time was pretty much a graveyard. Nobody wanted to be out in that shit.

Now, if the Pacific warms up enough that the storms making their way up the Pacific coast don't dissipate by the time they hit the latitude of San Diego or L.A., then yeah it's gonna suck. :(

[Warren DeMontague]

13. The Bad Graphics are coming! The Bad Graphics are coming!

HALP!