Tropical Storm Grace Off Europe Coast!

UPDATE: I didn't shown any satellite pictures of Grace because that area of the world is dicey as far as satellite coverage, but the boys over at the CIMSS Blog have uploaded some good shots.

Here's a bizarre image that I just pulled from our Google Hurricane Tracker (PREMIUM | PRO):

For updated info on this storm, please monitor our Headlines (shown at right), Breaking Weather News Page (PREMIUM | PRO), and our Hurricane Center (PREMIUM | PRO).

That's right, that's a storm (named by the NHC, our government agency that issues official hurricane forecasts) off the coast of Europe, heading towards the U.K. The storm has 70 mph winds this morning so there is a slight chance it could increase to hurricane strength before weakening and being absorbed by another low pressure system.

FORECAST MODEL TRACKS AS OF THIS MORNING

That hasn't stopped some of the weather forecast models however from tracking her remnants through the U.K. and into Russia, though none say they will have hurricane-force winds in the future.

This may remind you a Tropical Storm Vince that I blogged about in 2005. He was the first Tropical Storm to ever make landfall in Spain. But with this one moving northeastward into cooler waters instead of east, I don't think she has much of a chance of appearing in the history books.

At the time, Vince was said to be the farthest east-forming Tropical Storm, forming at -19.20 latitude and today he maintains that record as Grace is still a hair to the west at -20.30 (lat decreases as you move east).

Other tropical storms of interest in this area include 2005's Tropical Storm Delta which lost Tropical characteristics just before it hit the 20th parallel and transitioned to an Extratropical Storm which nearly made it all the way to Africa) and Hurricane Gordon which transitioned to an Extratropical Storm east of the 15th parallel off the coast of Spain.

AccuWeather.com Professional's Joe Bastardi [BIO] (PRO USERS READ NOW | 30-DAY FREE TRIAL) is furious that the NHC named this storm and said in his blog last night: