No its more like a TS is a pug and a Hurricane is a Pomeranian and an extratropical cyclone is a cat. 

A TS is just a slightly weaker hurricane, although having a TS landfall in the UK would only be marginally less awe inspiring. It would still make meteorological history. 

FYI Pug and Pomeranian are pretty much the only dog breeds I know. I like them because they look cute. 

Yes it did but it was definitely not a hurricane. In fact I think you'd struggle to get a more pure baroclinic system. 

It wasn't a hurricane officially, but given the way the press went about it both at the time and then for years afterwards, one could almost have been forgiven for thinking it had been so. How many times have they replayed the opening couple of lines of Michael Fish's infamous forecast from the afternoon before the storm!

It even featured in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. Poor Michael Fish will never be able to live it down.

Regardless of how close Ophelia gets and how tropical it is on closest approach or landfall, I am intrigued by the potential for some degree of 'subsidence warming' ahead of the system; tropical cyclones produce upper-level outflow channels of warm air, which then tend to slow down a little way ahead of the system's track (as the upper-level flow is often the steering flow too) and then subside toward the surface, with consequential warming which can then lead to increased surface temperatures compared to what would usually be taking place under a given setup of airflow and airmass temperatures.

This could give Monday's temperatures a little extra kick upward. What I don't know, helpfully enough, is whether this is already being incorporated into the models... 

So...

Apart from this weekend's heatwave, next week's hurricane and the chance of first snow at the end of the month, anything interesting to report?

Of course, it'll probably be slightly warm this weekend, a bit breezy next week and slightly below average thereafter but we can dream! 🙂

Your dog game is strong

I still think this is fascinating though. If it looses all its tropical characteristics it might only be the strongest ex-hurricane in a few decades but if it can hold on to them it will be a meteorological first and a once in a lifetime event.

Plus MattyH gets proven wrong which is always a nice bonus. 

You’ve no chance. It’s not even a hurricane now. There’s absolutely no chance whatsoever it’ll reintensify as it heads north into increasingly cooler waters. 

Seeing as you appear to be moving the goalposts I’ll just remind you that I have confidently said no bonafida hurricane can ever hit the UK. Impossible given our location and enormous area of cool water stretching for thousands or miles west and southwest of us. Zero chance. You sticking a warm core into a depression and getting excited because you feel you can chuck the word tropical into it, doesn’t make a hurricane. 

Really? last time I looked at the NHC it was a category 2 storm with sustained winds of 105mph, sounds an awful lot like a hurricane to me...

It will probably transition to extra tropical later on tomorrow or sunday, but take nothing away from this setup, it is very unusual for the UK and no doubt the warmer then normal SSTs in the eastern Atlantic will provide it with hurricane strength winds for a bit longer.

It is still a category 2 hurricane, don't know where you are getting your information from!

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at2.shtml?cone#contents