Meteorological History of Hurricane Noel - Extratropical Transition and Demise

Extratropical Transition and Demise

Convection increased early on November 1, though initially the center remained to the southwest of the large area of thunderstorms. At 1800 UTC that day, the storm passed over the Bahamian island of New Providence near the city of Nassau. Later that day the center tracked beneath the convection, and Noel accelerated northeastward in the southwesterly flow ahead of an approaching trough; as it did so, the center became elongated and distorted. The cyclone maintained a large, round area of deep convection with well-defined outflow, and an eye feature became evident on satellite imagery. Based on reports from Hurricane Hunters, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Noel to hurricane status early on November 2 about 180 miles (285 km) north-northeast of Nassau, Bahamas. Its convection began to wane as it moved through progressively cooler waters, and as it lost tropical characteristics its wind field expanded. By late on November 2, the inner core had substantially diminished, and the thermodynamical structure of the cyclone had become asymmetrical and frontal; as it began transitioning into an extratropical cyclone, the National Hurricane Center issued the final advisory on Hurricane Noel.

Early on November 3, the extratropical cyclone attained winds of 85 mph (140 km/h), and it gradually turned to the north-northeast. As the center of Noel approached Nova Scotia, its large circulation produced strong winds across all of Atlantic Canada and New England, and on November 4 it tracked across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. At 6 PM AST (2200 UTC) November 4, as the storm was over Labrador, the Canadian Hurricane Center declared that Noel has lost all tropical characteristics and changed its designation from post-tropical to extratropical. The extratropical low continued to the northeast and made landfall over southwest Greenland on the afternoon of November 5, bringing tropical storm force winds to the area. The center dissipated over Greenland later that night. While its lowest barometric pressure as a tropical system was 980 mb, on November 4, while located near Labrador, it registered a minimum pressure of 966 mb.