Tropical Storm Julia Forms…Inland?

For the past, oh say, week or so, we have been tracking a system traversing across the Atlantic referred to as “93L” by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). As it propagated eastward, it looked fairly terrible the majority of the way. It was disorganized and just kinda an amorphous blob.

As it trekked across the Atlantic, it showed no signs of forming in any way shape or form. That is until yesterday afternoon…after the center was already near or inland in Florida. Inland. Yes, a Tropical Storm legitimately formed inland yesterday.

The track of Julia has been...over land. h/t NHC
The track of Julia has been…over land. h/t NHC

It had already been developing well yesterday morning, and the center continued to show strong convection and a well defined, closed surface low. I actually was surprised at how long it took the NHC to designate it. They waited until 11 PM to designate it as a Tropical Storm, and by then, it had already been rolling for a few hours. 

Surprisingly, this has happened before. It is really rare, but it has happened before.

Julia is forecast to become a Tropical Depression later today, but is forecast to produce heavy rainfall across eastern Georgia and South Carolina.

The forecast track for Tropical Storm Julia. h/t NHC
The forecast track for Tropical Storm Julia. h/t NHC
The rainfall forecast for Tropical Storm Julia. h/t NHC
The rainfall forecast for Tropical Storm Julia. h/t NHC