There were high hopes last week from alarmists the the first Atlantic tropical storm of 2017 – Arlene, which formed 40 days before the official start of Hurricane season on June 1st, would turn into a bonanza of “weather is getting worse due to climate change” stories. Alas, the system was so weak, it became a non-tropical storm almost as fast as it was declared one. Perhaps NHC was a bit premature in the declaration of a named storm?

From NASA Goddard: An animation created by NASA using imagery from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite shows the North Atlantic Ocean’s first tropical storm of the season being “eaten” by a large frontal system. The animation from April 19 to April 22 shows Tropical Storm Arlene in the Central Atlantic Ocean as it strengthened into a tropical storm on April 21 and weakened to a subtropical storm only to be absorbed by a frontal system later that same day. The animation combines visible and infrared satellite imagery from NOAA’s GOES-East satellite.

On Friday, April 21 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT), the National Hurricane Center issued their final bulletin on Arlene. At that time, Arlene had ceased to be a tropical cyclone although maintaining maximum sustained winds near 45 knots (52 mph/83 kph). At the time, Arlene was centered about 1,235 miles west-northwest of the Azores islands near 39.3 degrees north latitude and 49.9 degrees west longitude.

Arlene was moving southwest at 20 knots (23 mph/37 kph) when the frontal system to the west of the post-tropical storm, caught up to Arlene and absorbed it.

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