Hurricane Sam remains a major hurricane today with maximum sustained winds of at least 125 mph in the storm; while it remains a major hurricane for yet another day, it isn’t directly impacting any land mass. However, rough surf and swells generated by the storm will continue to lash the North American coastline for the next several days. While Sam is holding its own, Victor is quickly fading away, becoming downgraded earlier today from tropical storm status to tropical depression status; it is unlikely to survive the weekend.
While Sam is a major hurricane now, it is gradually losing strength. Satellite images show that the eye has become more cloud filled, with Sam’s ring of deep convection becoming less intense and two main towers in the southeast and northwest quadrants. The National Hurricane Center believes Sam could remain a major hurricane for another day or so. However, in 36 hours or so, the system should move north of the Gulf Stream, which would normally cause a dramatic weakening. However, the NHC says that in this case, a favorable mid-latitude trough interaction should cause Sam to transition into a large and powerful extratropical low i about 4-5 days. After that, Sam should lose its baroclinic forcing and should gradually spin down over the far North Atlantic southwest of Iceland.
While Sam should fade away over the northern North Atlantic, Victor is falling apart well to Sam’s south. The National Hurricane Center says Victor will continue to gradually weaken over the next couple of days and should become a remnant low; by Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center expects the system to be complete dissipated.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, the National Hurricane Center expects no other tropical cyclone formation anywhere within the Atlantic Hurricane Basin over the next five days.
The 2021 Atlantic Hurricane season continues through to the end of November.
