Saturday, September 10, 2005

Today Ophelia has started to lift out slowly away from the Florida coast.  The 
core is still evident from visible satellite imagery (Fig. 107), as is the principal rain band 
wrapping from the southeast side around the northeast, northwest, and to the west side of 
the storm.  Infrared imagery (Fig. 108) shows convection around the center of the storm, 
but not very cold cloud tops.  It also shows dry air to the west of the system, which may 
limit any further intensification.  Track guidance is widely spread (Fig. 109), though most 
of the reliable dynamical models suggest that Ophelia will track slowly along the coast of 
South Carolina.  Some models keep the storm in that same general place for the next 
several days.

 

Figure 107.  GOES-East visible image valid 1245 UTC September 10, 2005.
 

Figure 108.  GOES-East infrared image valid 1345 UTC September 10, 2005.

 
Figure 109.  Track guidance for Ophelia valid 12 UTC September 10, 2005.

There were no P-3 flights today.  The plan for tomorrow calls for a three-plane 
IFEX/RAINEX/Ocean Winds experiment.  This will be the first time this season that all 
three planes will be available for a purely research mission