Atlantic's First Invest of the 2015, 90L, Organizing Over the Bahamas

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2975

By: Jeff Masters and Bob Henson , 3:50 PM GMT on May 06, 2015

The first Atlantic Ocean "Invest" of 2015 has arrived, as the National Hurricane Center (NHC) designated the area of disturbed weather over the Northwest Bahamas as Invest 90L on Wednesday morning. Note that there is no formal definition of what qualifies as an "Invest"; declaring an "Invest" is merely done so that a set of forecasting aids like computer model track forecasts can be generated for the disturbance. NHC gives an "Invest" a tracking number 90-99, followed by a single letter corresponding to the ocean basin--"L" for the Atlantic, or "E" for the Eastern Pacific. Other warning agencies assign "Invests" for the other ocean basins--"W" for the Western Pacific, "A" for the Arabian Sea, etc. When the numbering reaches 99, the next disturbance gets the recycled name "90". The appearance of 90L on May 6 this year marks the third earliest arrival of the year's first "Invest" over the past ten years

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Ocean temperatures were near 26°C (79°F), which is about 1.7°C (3°F) above average for this time of year, and just at the limit of where a tropical storm can form.

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