Hurricane Sex Change? Why It Wouldn’t Be Named Isaac Jr.

The idea of naming tropical cyclones came about as a way to differentiate between storms in a particular season and through the years. Every now and then a tropical system will form, get a name, dissipate and then strengthen again. Usually when that happens the system retains the same name.

You may have heard rumblings or seen on Facebook stories about the "Spawn of Isaac". What has happened is a piece of energy from what was once Hurricane Issac has drifted into the northern Gulf of Mexico and is not sitting just off the coast near Pensacola.

Right now the National Hurricane Center gives this area of disturbed weather a 50% chance of becoming a named system. If the system does become organized enough to become a named storm it would be called Nadine, the next name on the list of tropical systems for this season.

Why not Isaac again or Isaac Jr.? The reason is simple, this is just a piece of energy that broke away from the area of main circulation as Isaac passed over the Midwest. The main center of circulation of Isaac continued to move east and off into the Atlantic.

So in weather geek terms this is a part of Isaac but it isn't Isaac. Let's hope the cold front that is forecast to bring cooler temperatures to the area over the weekend pushes this area of disturbed weather on out of the Gulf and we can get through the rest of hurricane season with out another storm.