Tropical Storm Don

[Eric]

The National Hurricane Center, I found out this morning, has an amusing sense of humor.

Yeah, some of the forecasters do like to add their own personal touches to their reports.  It makes for interesting reading. 

[TWCC_DJK5555]

The first time my name is attached to a tropical system, and it ends up being the biggest dud I've ever seen.   

Don't get me wrong, I'm not rooting for destruction, and I never will.  I'm very glad there was none. 

Thing is, this system had the potential to deliver significant rainfall to areas that desperately need it.  This TS could've been a very GOOD thing, which is almost unheard of.  Nowhere near an inch fell anywhere.   

[twcctornado77]

Don may be the biggest flop ever. 

[phw115wvwx]

Now you know why my forecast was as stated for Don.   I had never seen a tropical storm develop so poorly to where the convection wanted to fire over the Yucatan Peninsula more than than the center of the circulation.  Furthermore, the circulation was tilted with height most of the time and not upright.  You don't get good updrafts when it's sloped!

I seriously think the ongoing drought played a major role here.  With virtually no soil moisture in the TX region, a huge hot and dry air mass has been sitting there.  All of the moisture literally evaporated out of Don in that air mass.  If TX had not been in a drought, there would be far more moisture in the air to allow further penetration inland.  See, even little things like the amount of soil moisture can mean a lot with large systems.

[Pop Light Brown]

Don was literally choked to death by Dry Air.