Hurricane Barry - July 7-18, 2019
A thunderstorm complex was seen on satellite and radar imagery across
southwest Kansas on July 2nd. Its mid-level circulation
moved east, then southeast, into northern Georgia by the 7th when a
surface low formed. Occasional thunderstorm development
near the center occurred as it wandered generally southward through
Georgia. As it moved into the Florida Panhandle,
additional thunderstorm activity formed near and offshore though
activity remained poorly organized. As the system
moved southwest and west-southwest through the northeast Gulf of
Mexico, the center of the low became well-defined
and a tropical depression is deemed to have formed on the evening
of the 10th about 170 miles south of Mobile, Alabama.
The system strengthened, becoming a tropical storm early on the
morning of the 12th as the system tracked westward.
Northely vertical wind shear kept thunderstorm activity constrained
to its southern side even as the system strengthened.
Barry turned west-northwest and became a hurricane on the morning
of the 13th just prior to landfall to the east-
southeast of Pecan Island, Louisiana.
Thunderstorm activity remained poorly organized as the system moved
inland, with Barry regaining tropical storm
status on the afternoon of the 13th and tropical depression status
late on the 14th as its center entered
Arkansas. A combination of north to northeast vertical wind shear,
sufficient instability, and effective
bulk shear allowed concentrated bands of convection to develop within
its southern side which displayed both
training and backbuilding character which led to prolific rainfall
across portions of Louisiana and Arkansas
as Barry continued to weaken while moving into the Midwest. The
system became a remnant low on the morning of the
15th which then arced northeast and east ahead of an incoming cold
front, moving across Illinois on the afternoon of
the 16th and crossing Ohio on the 17th. By the 18th, Barry's weak
area of low pressure linked up with the incoming
cold front as it moved across Pennsylvania and the low moved offshore
Long Island late on the 18th before becoming
absorbed by an area of low pressure south of Nova Scotia on the 19th.
The graphics below show the storm total rainfall for Barry, which used
rain gage information from the National Weather
Service River Forecast Centers, Forecast Offices, and CoCoRAHS.