Interesting little blob off the SE coast...

[Thunder44]

Not the one south of Berumuda but just to west of that area. Is that an MCS?

http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/goeseastconusir.html

[Hurricanehink]

Hmm, I was wondering about that area. Don't mean to sound stupid, but what's an MCS?

[wxman57]

Hmm, I was wondering about that area. Don't mean to sound stupid, but what's an MCS?

MCS = Mesoscale Convective System (or MCC - Mesoscale Convective Complex). Basically, a blob of thunderstorms that's hanging together.

Or, more precisely:

Mesoscale Convective System: Definition

A precipitation system having a spatial scale of 20-500 km and a temporal scale of 2-12 hours that includes convection during some part of its lifetime (Hane, 1986, Mesoscale book).

Zipser (1982) notes, “The important point is that the MCS evolves from an early intensifying stage in which intense convection is dominant, with a strong net upward motion at low levels, through the mature stage into a decaying stage in which convective rain exists, but becomes less important, while stratiform rain associated with upward motion at high levels becomes predominant.”

Examples of MCS include: large isolated thunderstorms, squall lines, MCCs, bow echoes, and large convective rainbands

[Hurricanehink]

Cool, thanks. So do MCS become TCs? If so, can this one become one?

[Thunder44]

Cool, thanks. So do MCS become TCs? If so, can this one become one?

They rarely do, but this one has persisted from yesterday and looks a little bit more interesting this morning.

[ColdFront77]

I've been watching that blob of convection today, too. It has been moving more southwesterly, than southerly the last several hours.