000 WTPZ45 KNHC 022041 TCDEP5 Tropical Depression Twenty-Five-E Discussion Number 1 NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL EP252018 300 PM MDT Fri Nov 02 2018 Microwave data received during the past several hours indicate that the broad area of low pressure we've been monitoring southwest of the coast of Mexico has developed a sufficiently well-defined center of circulation and improved low-level curved bands. Visible images, however, still suggest that multiple swirls are revolving around a common center, with the deepest convection offset to the east of that center due to southwesterly shear. Now that the system has a well-defined center, advisories are being initiated on Tropical Depression Twenty-Five-E, with maximum winds of 30 kt based on Dvorak classifications of T2.0 and T1.5. Although the depression should remain over sufficiently warm waters to support strengthening, southwesterly shear is expected to increase from its current value of about 15 kt to over 25 kt during the next couple of days. Therefore, only some intensification is anticipated during the next 36 hours or so, with weakening beginning by day 3. The system is likely to degenerate into a remnant low in 4 or 5 days once it can no longer produce organized deep convection. The statistical-dynamical guidance show little to no strengthening, so this initial forecast most closely follows the HWRF, HCCA, and GFS models. The depression appears to be moving east-northeastward, or 75 degrees, at about 7 kt. The depression is trapped between two mid-tropospheric ridges to its east and west, and to the south of an expansive mid-level trough which extends across much of Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting steering pattern should cause the cyclone to move slowly northeastward and then northward toward the trough during the next 48 hours, but the system should then turn sharply westward on days 4 and 5 once it becomes a shallower system and is steered by lower-level easterly flow. The UKMET model is the main outlier among the model guidance, showing the system reaching the coast of southwestern Mexico, but it appears to keep the circulation too deep in the face of strong southwesterly shear. The NHC track forecast is therefore just slightly left of the TVCN multi-model consensus and the HCCA model, keeping the cyclone well offshore of the coast of Mexico. FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS INIT 02/2100Z 14.4N 109.0W 30 KT 35 MPH 12H 03/0600Z 14.7N 108.3W 35 KT 40 MPH 24H 03/1800Z 15.2N 107.6W 40 KT 45 MPH 36H 04/0600Z 15.9N 107.1W 45 KT 50 MPH 48H 04/1800Z 16.7N 107.0W 45 KT 50 MPH 72H 05/1800Z 17.5N 107.4W 35 KT 40 MPH 96H 06/1800Z 17.8N 109.0W 30 KT 35 MPH 120H 07/1800Z 18.0N 111.5W 25 KT 30 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW $$ Forecaster Berg